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Dyeing a 70 cotton, 30% silk blend - question about what color silk will take

Hi all,

Ok, I will now be dyeing a cotton silk blend baby wrap with fiber reactive dye. I know that silk will absorb a different color than cotton when not using pure colors.

Is there any info out there that shows what color the silk will become with the different fiber reactive dyes? I figure someone out there has done experimentation. If not, if I got a random piece of silk to practice on, what the results be similar when dyeing the wrap.

This is my first time dyeing silk :)

By jkcs4jesus at 2011-12-11 20:11 | Silk | login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

I think you'll have to sample.

The problem isn't just that the silk will dye a slightly different shade by itself. If you dye silk and cotton in the same dyebath, they will take up dyes at different rates, which will shift the color again. I was recently surprised when I hand-painted a piece of (handwoven) fabric that had silk in the warp and rayon chenille in the weft. Even though they were painted together, the silk came out much paler than the chenille - I assume because the rayon chenille reacted much faster with the dye, leaving very little for the silk to absorb. So you may get a heathered effect, depending on how blended the fibers are. If you have a really even blend it may not matter much.

I'd try some samples with your silk, but realize that the color is likely to shift again when you dye with the mixed silk and cotton.

Hope that helps -

Tien

Website: http://www.tienchiu.com
Blog: http://www.tienchiu.com/category/blog-posts

By tienchiu at Tue, 2011-12-13 07:13 | login or register to post comments

Just noticed that the post wa

Just noticed that the post was tagged as 41 years old LOL.

Should I put this in a different category?

By jkcs4jesus at Tue, 2011-12-13 02:34 | login or register to post comments

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