Name: Dave
Message: I'm very excited about the potential for creating my own photographic backdrops after reading your section on low water immersion dyeing. Here's my question: can you complete the dye process (all the way through final wash/rinse) with one color and then start over again with the second color. I'd like to try this to achieve a more random pattern relationship between the colors. How far through the dyeing process do you think I would need to go before starting with the second color? I intend to use large 3 x 2 yd unbleached, naturaL, muslin

Yes, you certainly can repeat the dye process. Dyeing the same fabric multiple times can result in richer colors than dyeing only once, and layers of different colors can produce great results.

If you like to let your colors run on the fabric before adding soda ash, in low water immersion dyeing, you should wash the dye and soda ash out, at least the initial cold water washing, before applying another layer of dye. This is the best way to ensure that there is no relationship between the patterns of dye gradations in first layer and that in the second layer. If you add more dye before rinsing out the fabric, the fabric is apt to be crinkled in the same places, causing less of both applications of dye to reach certain areas. You can also get great results by adding another color on top of the original low water immersion dyebath without rinsing, but the relationship between the areas dyed by the two colors will be a bit less random. You'll probably want to try both ways.

I recommend that you use cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX, Cibacron F, or Drimarene K dyes, along with soda ash as the dye fixative.