"for that dye is on me"

It will help me nothing to plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me, which makes my whit’st part black.

Buckingham, in Henry VIII, act 1, sc. 1, l. 207-9.

This weekend was dye weekend (along with brewing weekend)…Needless to say, we were very busy boiling lots of things this weekend. I would like to include some hints and tips that I have learned from fabric manipulation classes and from my degree. However, this is not a tutorial, when dying your own projects, always read all directions before you start.

My first tip is to always get the right dye for the job. I get my dye at Dharma Trading Company. For Linen, Wool and Silk, I use Acid Dyes. They take the best and there is less chance of your colors fading/running.

After I am done, I always wash the fabric 1 more time in a vinegar solution to help reduce bleeding. The last thing I want is to spend time on making an outfit and then have it bleed. Some additional benefits of washing something in vinegar: It acts as a stain fighter, reduces the amount of lint, and makes the fabric nice and soft.

The first color I knew I needed to dye was one of the reds to a darker maroon. Lukas was very specific the colors he wanted. This picture shows the red linen starting to boil in the pot. I then add a white feather as a controlled item. I always do this, when I am over dying a color.

Here I am, adding the dye. Sorry its sideways, I will try to fix it later. When working with Dye ALWAYS wear gloves and a mask. The dye will dye you and the fumes are toxic....See the Toxic fumes.....

Here you can see why I do a test feather...Look the feather is now maroon.

I then boil (PER THE DIRECTIONS) the fabric (yum fabric soup) for 30 minutes with vinegar. I let it cool, carefully drain it, and run it through the washing machine. I will then usually run it through the machine again with some vinegar. I do this till all the dye has run or bled out. Normally once, but up to 2 or 3 times with red.

When dying wool you need to make sure all lanolin and other materials (including soap) are out. I always wash the wool on hot with soap first, then run it through 2-3 more times without soap. If you have any soap residue it will not dye right. If you are doing Landsknecht or cut and slash garb then you want the wool felted or felled. The more times you run it through the water and the dryer the more felted it becomes...this is a good thing. The yellow wool to the side use to be a natural creme...It took the dye beautiful, but had some residue on it, so it was a bit spotty. I had to do 3 dye baths to get it done.

I also did a few feathers as my test subjects....however, as the now gold wool had some creme in it to start with, they didn't dye quite the same shade. While washing the wool, I continued to dye the yellow feathers in yellow along with some old coffee I had. They came out the exact right shade.

To fix and clean old (or recently dyed feathers) simply steam them with a hot iron or over a pan of water. Here you can see some of Lukas's old feathers getting cleaned.

It took all weekend (minus most of Sunday while we were out of the house) to wash, iron, dye, and steam all the fabric & feathers. I have a bit more ironing to do, but then it will be off to the cutting racetrack.