Wild Colours - Exciting colours from Natural Dyes
Wild Colours natural dyes > indigo dye > shibori & tie-dyeing
First you need to choose your fabric, dye and threads. Below you will find guidance on types of fabric to use for tie dye with natural dyes, choice of natural dyes and what makes a good tie for tie dye.
You will achieve better results with a fabric that absorbs dye quickly, such as silk. However, cotton is commonly used for tie-dye, particularly with indigo. It is a good idea to experiment with lightweight cotton fabrics before moving onto silk and other more expensive fabrics. And before embarking on a larger project, it would be wise to try a sample with your chosen fabric to see how well it takes the dye and how clear the pattern is.
i) Cotton fabrics
Remember that you will need to scour your cotton fabric before you tie dye. Some fabric shops sell cottons that are ‘Prepared for Dyeing’ (PFD), they still need scouring, but not as much as fabrics that are not PFD.
ii) Silk
Silk takes dye really well and it also absorbs colour quickly, two properties that make silk ideal to use with shibori. You will also get darker colours on silk than on cotton.
iii) Felt
Of course, you don’t need to restrict yourself to fabric, thin handmade felt, thin pre-felts or nuno felt are great for shibori too.
Now Go to:
b) Natural dyes for tie dyeing (opens a new page)
c) Choice of threads for tie dye (opens a new page)
d) Tie dye tips (opens a new page)
UK Shipping £4.95p on orders up to £100 & free over £100 in UK
[shipping £2.95 on very small orders up to £2.95 in value]
Delivery to Europe + rest of World click here
Overseas orders sent by Tracked Airmail
Special & Next Day Delivery
Updated on 22 April 2024
Website & photos by Mike Roberts ©2006-24 Wild Colours natural dyes