Silk Ice dye tutoiral

Ice Dyeing with Silk

Many customers have asked if you can do Ice Dyeing with silk just like with cellulose fibers such as cotton or rayon. The short answer is yes! However, we couldn't just leave it at that. In this tutorial we will show you how to ice dye and what the effect the weight of the silk can have on the final result. Only one color of dye was used, #75 Safari Gray, but you can use any of our Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes that tickle your fancy.

Shopping list:

Let's get started!

Getting started

Pre-wash your fabric with the Professional Textile Detergent. This will remove any fabric softeners, oils, dirt, etc that might have gotten on your dyeable blanks or fabrics during manufacturing or through handling.

Tie up your fabric in any fold pattern you like, we did all in loose spirals to compare how each takes the same color dye.

Fold and bind fabric

Mix up your soda ash, 2 cups per gallon of water, and add in your tied fabric. Let them soak for about 10-15 min. Pull them out and squeeze out the excess solution (wear good rubber gloves). You can save the soda ash for more dyeing later.

Soak in soda ash solution

Place your wire rack in a tub (we used an old dish drainer). Put your tied bundles on the rack.

Pro-Tip- you can make collars with aluminum foil like we did to help keep the ice on top of each fabric bundle. Makes your ice go a lot farther.

Use foil to keep ice on fabric

Leave bottom open so dye can escape

Next, cover everything in ice. We used 1-2 inches of ice, enough to cover the fabric.

Pro-Tip: You want to cover the dyeables as much as you can, as areas with no ice will likely end up staying white as the ice melts.

Areas with no ice will stay white

Time to put the dust mask on! We are going to be using the dye powder and we want to be safe about not inhaling any fine particles of dye.

Grab your first color (if using more that one) and start sprinkling the dye powder on the ice. Be as random or as specific as you want with how you spread the dye. Remember, as the ice melts colors will mix and blend as they hit the shirt. So if you put yellow and blue together, you will get greens. On the other hand, part of the fun is that "mix" colors will split up a bit into their component colors, giving you neat effects. You can use this to your advantage when choosing your colors.

Sprinkle on colors

Let ice melt and fabric cure for 24 hours

Once everything is sprinkled to your liking, cover the tubs with some plastic and let the melting progress. Putting the tubs in a warm place can speed things up. Let it all sit this way for 24 hours. When you come back 24 hrs later, your bundles will look like this:

Next day will look like this

Inside the tub may look like a big pool of black or brown but don't worry, the fabric isn't going to end up all muddy, we promise. The items were elevated so the melt water could drain away and are a little less scary looking.

Take your tubs over to the sink and start rinsing your bundles in COLD running water. Rinse until the water is running mostly clear. Then untie them and keep rinsing.

Finally, toss everything in the wash with HOT water and Professional Textile Detergent. Dry and iron, then it is ready to cut and sew!

Finished project 1

8mm


Finished project 2

12mm


Finished project 3

16mm

We used three weights of our silk Habotai, 8mm, 12mm, and 16mm. In this photo below you can see, from left to right, how the weight of the silk affected the dyes flowing through the fabric.


Customer Comments
Image of a notebook and pencil
 

If you'd rather speak with a human, please call toll-free from anywhere in the U.S. or Canada M-F 8am to 5pm PST

Phone: (800) 542-5227

Your item has been added to your shopping cart   Item Added to Cart
Your item has not been added to your shopping cart   Item Not Added

About Tiered Discount Levels

You can combine cotton and rayon clothing & accessories to get the greatest discounts. Your discount is figured on the total number of cotton and rayon items we ship, not how many of each type, style or size. Mix and match them to get the best discount.

Example: adding 4 each of 3 different T-shirts in any sizes will give you the 12+ price on all 12 shirts.

Visual aid for discount details

Visual aid for how discounts will look in cart

Some products may be excluded from discounts, and / or may discount only with themselves. If you have any questions at all please contact us toll free at 800-542-5227 (no buttons, just humans).

Drag and Drop chips to the Palette first.

ssl test img