Purple Fishies

I’ve been tweeting about dying fabric, specifically purple fish (fishies!).  I started out with this navy blue fabric (still hunting for the original pics) with orange fish on it.  Meh!  Not really my thing, but it was going to be a pair of pillow cases.  But, it got tucked in the stash and each time I pulled it out, I just couldn’t get inspired.

So, as part of my “use the stash” efforts (currently ongoing with the FiveS effort), I decided, “What the hell!  Life’s short, I’ve got some cool cotton fabric on hand with gold paint.”  So I picked up some Rit color remover and attempted to remove all color except the gold fishy outlines (they’re actually koi, but I think it’s funny to refer to them as fishies).  Um, no.  That didn’t happen as expected.

If you look at “Step 2” noted in the picture, you’ll see it’s kind of brown.  Oh boy, that did NOT thrill me.  It wasn’t even a nice earthy brown.  This is the orangy brown you get when you CANNOT pull all the color out of the fabric.  Overdying on this color produces muted and muddy tones.  Not the brilliant Tye-Dye like ones.

But, I pushed on.  I pulled out my Intense Violet Dylon pack and went to town.  The results, are in “Step 3”.  This was a natural fiber dye on a seemingly all cotton fabric.  But, what I realized is that this fabric wasn’t taking the dye fully.  It came out kinda pinky (which I expected), but much lighter.  So, I dug in my box of dye packets and found Violet iDye Poly.  Because, let me tell you, I was not done with purple.  Funny, because more than 2 years ago I was overdying a skirt and all I wanted then was purple too!

So after the Rit color remover and the Intense Violet Dylon and the Violet iDye Poly I’m left with is “Step 4”, dusty dirty purple fish which remind me of cool nights in the desert or of gypsy travelers.

More to come later when I actually turn this into something wearable!  I’m still pondering which side to use and it’s final purpose.  Who knows, it just may be a turban for MedFest! 😉