Name: Jane

Message: Thanks for a great, well written site.   I found just what I needed on your gradient dying page - you have excellent instructions.  But I just had to laugh at the guy trying to dye the meat, (your response was perfect) and the folks with the canvas couch that turned their hands blue.  :D

I'm trying to dye some very smooth gradients for quilting. I have done a LOT of tie dying with procion dyes, weekend workshops with hundreds of kids... but never a nice even gradient like I'll need for my quilt blocks.

Another site was suggesting that I could roll the fabric smoothly around a dowel, then put the entire thing in the dye bath... that the edges and outer wrapped bit would be darker, and that the color would fade evenly as it soaked thru to the inner layers of fabric.  Have you ever tried anything like that?

I'm afraid that wrapping the cloth around the dowel will cause a less perfect gradient. There will inevitably be some imperfection in the rolling, so you'll get more of a low water immersion effect with variations in color. The results could be very nice, but not, I think, the perfect smooth gradient you're looking for. If you roll loosely, there will be less of the LWI patterning, but then the inside will be nearly as dark as the outside. 

I have not actually tried the dowel-wrapping method for a gradient. I did something similar in rolling a garment up around a rope, but then I tied the rope to make a ruching pattern, which you're obviously not intending to do. The shapes produced by the ruching were intriguing, but, since I originally place the rope horizontally on the garment before rolling, the overall effect was one of horizontal stripes, not the most flattering thing to wear.

You've already seen these instructions, "Dip dyeing for an ombré gradient effect" from March 7, 2008. They are really the best I have to offer, for smooth gradient effects, detailing first the dip-dyeing method for as perfect a gradient as possible, then the quick-and-easy tie-dye recipe gradient method.

Please consider joining the Dye Forum. I'd love to hear about what methods end up working best for you.


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