Name: Sue

Message: I would like to dye my own muslin for photography backdrop. I like the color pattern in your hammerhead shark tshirt. I have tried to dye in a large bucket by scrunching up the fabric and pouring dye here and there, but I don't like the results. I'm getting dark splotchy patterns.

What kind of dye are you using? Are you using a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye?

It sounds like you are using low water immersion dyeing, which is one of my favorite methods for dyeing fabric. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". I recommend that you use Procion MX dye with the recipe on that page. You can also substitute one 5-gram tin of Dylon Cold Water Dye for each teaspoon of Procion MX dye.

I would recommend you dilute your dye in a larger quantity of water than you have been using, and use less dye overall, in order to get lighter colors. To get more subtle variation in colors, poke at your fabric in the low water immersion dyebath, using a large plastic spoon such as is used for cooking, or even stir it a small amount, or use a larger container so that the fabric is not held tightly enough by the container to result in a tie-dye resist effect. You don't need to try all of these ideas at once. Just one of them may be sufficient.

For low water immersion, I like to have the level of my water, with the dye and soda ash in it, slightly above the top of the fabric. This is a matter of trial and error for you. Perhaps you need to add more water than you have been using.

A very nice effect for a photography backdrop is to use a premixed color, such as any of the green Procion MX colors (there is no single-hue unmixed Procion MX green dye), mix it in water, and pour it all over the fabric. The different colors in the mixture will separate out of the fabric, especially if the fabric is held tightly by its container. You may obtain some surprising color combinations in this way.

The hammerhead shark's background is similar to what I get with low water immersion, but in fact what I did for that shirt was soak it in soda ash, mix up Procion MX dyes according to the tie dye recipe, lay the shirt out flat, and squirt the dyes here and there on the shirt with plastic squeeze bottles.

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