Out of the Dyepot: Silks and a few Linens and Cottons

Introduction:
What was I thinking?? That is how I felt when I opened the big bag with the fabrics I bought in India for dyeing. The silks are gorgeous—each one more luscious than the previous one. But I got “a meter of this, a meter of that, 2 meters of this”. That’s a lot of fabric. But they are so-o-o wonderful.  And I’m deciding that they are more and more wonderful dyed in red or yellow onion skins I got from our kitchen. My first samples were about 2” square because I only have a little bit of red skins. I made much larger pieces in my first yellow onion skin dyepot. I’m not sure what will come next, but I’m thinking about it. I know I don’t want to make something to wear because I have too much already from trips and I don’t sew well enough. Besides, I don’t make anything useful.

Just off the drying rack—how exciting. These are from the second red onion skin batch. And I know they will look much better than this when ironed. You can see that the silks dye easier than the linens. All of these were in the same dye bath.

Here is a bundle of the undegummed silks. I like them undyed, too.

Here are the silk fabrics I have to work with stacked on a chair with a yardstick for scale.

Here are some of the small samples on the drying rack.

These are the “silky” ones—in a previous post I only showed the undegummed ones. I dyed those stiff ones first because I has such a little amount of red skins, I knew I’d get the most color with them. I’m glad there was enough color for the silky ones. Interesting to get a yellow one.

Here are the linens and cottons. They aren’t so dramatic. I think I’ll save them for my black walnut dye. I haven’t done any mordanting. That seems more than I want to get into. I’m too impatient.

Here are the fabrics that came out of the yellow onion skin dye. No mordant.