Dying silk ribbons

I wish every project involved silk or velvet ribbons...

The Birdsong journal for my class needed velvet ribbons.  It is really hard to find affordable velvet ribbons anywhere!!!  I found them in white at Dharma Trading, and while there, fell for the silk too. And the dye, and some scarves to dye, and well, more than I should've bought.

I've been a fan of this dye for years and use it a lot, for many things (including bottle brush trees, wool roving, and tie dye).  

For ribbons, I didn't bother with instructions, or presoaks. These ribbons are meant for journals, not sewing on clothing that will  be washed. 

I've also used koolaide or food coloring to dye ribbon, and that works fine too. 

Since I bought the ribbon in bulk, but didn't want it all the same color, I had to remove it from the spool.  It needed to be re-rolled up to dip dye  (like I did crepe paper here).  A pencil worked great to roll it back up and I stored the rolls in a plastic tub so they wouldn't unroll again.

Each roll got dipped halfway into the dye.

Some I used one color on and left the other half white.

Others, I flipped over and dyed the other half a second color.

These small bundles were left to drain on paper towels for a couple days.

The pile of ribbons in the back? Those are nicely crumpled instead of rolled, and were left all smooshed up to dry with that wrinkly effect.

For this, I just dunked a bunch of ribbon, and squeezed out the moisture, and left it to dry still scrunched up.

This is some ecru silk that was done that way. If you don't want the solid color ribbons crinkled, hang them up to dry instead.

More tips:

You should wear gloves.

If you want the dye to bleed, dip the rolls in water first.

Mix your dye in small batches, it doesn't take much.  And try the color very diluted first, it's easy to add more dye and re-dip the ribbon if the color is too pale. If it is too vivid, you can try dipping in clear water, or holding it under running water, but that might not take out enough of the color. Start light, work up to darker. You can dip a paper towel in the mix to see if you like the color, if you aren't happy with the shade, add more dye or more water before using the mixture for the ribbons or lace.

If you want a two color ribbon with white in the center, barely dip the edges in to the dye.  

 

While I had the colors mixed, I might have dyed a few more things too.  Newer white ribbon dipped in ecru dye sure looks nice and old afterwards.

And this fabric was a bit too gray for my purpose. I'm sewing it to these canvas bags, but I wasn't happy with the original color (right) so I dyed some in pink, some in ecru.

Both did a good job of taking out the cool tones of the gray. I knew some dye would be the solution to the cloth not matching the bag. But the cloth was such a good deal, I couldn't turn it down. I found a bunch of it for a dollar at the Victorian Trading Outlet center, they use it on their ironing board covers. And I love the roses.

Especially topped with robins!

 

Comments

[jeanie]

Fabulous, Karla and as always, your instructions are detailed and excellent. I do love Dharma's products. I've never been disappointed with their dyes.

[Gigi Harlan]

Great post! Thank you for sharing all of your tips and tricks. Your ribbons and fabric came out beautifully!

[catie]

so pretty thanks for the info

[kristina]

I just got my lace wedding dress and it's not quite as ivory as I expected. Would you recommend something like this to dip dye the bottom hem, maybe 12-24" high? I was thinking of making it sort of ombre with a light ecru color fading to the color of the lace as it goes up.
Thank you for any advice!

[Karla Nathan]

Id hate to advise you on something so valuable! Try it on other fabric first, please.