Silk Scarves for Dyeing

PONGE 5 & HABOTAI 8 – a fine smooth fabric with a very soft texture. Natural white – perfect for dyeing and for you to create your own design.

Silk is a most versatile fibre for dyeing and there are several techniques to explore – including:-

Block dyeing, batik, shibori and eco-dyeing.

BLOCK DYEING– simply follow the dye instructions on our HOW TO page to create a beautiful naturally dyed scarf using a colour/dye of your choice.

SHIBORI– to make a shaped resist pattern part of the fabric has to be bound, clamped, folded, pleated, stitched, twisted or wrapped before dyeing. The dye penetrates the non-resisted areas only. After dyeing and once the fabric is released from its binding a positive and a negative design is shown.

VISIT OUR SHIBORI AND INDIGO DYEING FOR BEGINNERS WORKSHOP

ECO-DYEING – Once you discover this simple, eco-friendly natural dyeing technique – you will never look at leaves, flowers and berries the same way again! Using nothing but certain foliage and a few helpful tools you can create beautiful patterns and designs on silk – with no harmful chemicals in sight!

Often silk is sold as prepared for dyeing – however, to be extra thorough – when purchasing these scarves for dyeing – scour to remove any dressing:-

Fill a bucket with sufficient water to cover the fabric without crowding it.

Add about 5ml of eco liquid soap for every 500g of fibre, and mix well.

Add fibre and heat gently – 140 degrees F for 1 hour.

Allow to cool and rinse in warm water.

Visit my INDIGO DYEING BLOG to see how I dyed a larger piece of silk which I used to make a silk tunic.

SILK CHIFFON SCARVES

Luxurious pure crepe chiffon – light and soft.

Lightweight natural white silk chiffon. The preferred material for nuno felting due to its lightweight and looser weave – allowing woollen fibres to penetrate with ease. Ideal for both nuno felting and natural dyeing.

NUNO FELTING – a technique of layering very small amounts of wool onto a woven fabric – usually silk. Through the felting process, the wool fibres migrate into the fabric.

For more information on how to nuno felt visit my FELTING page on the HOW TO dropdown bar.