Snow dyeing fabric

When I heard that Boston was going to get 2-3 feet of snow earlier this week, I decided to make lemonade from lemons by snow dyeing fabric, using some of that snow. The day before the storm, I prep…

I soaked my fat half yards (22X36) in a container of soda ash solution (one gallon water to one generous cup soda ash powder). While the fabric was soaking, I got out my hardware wire cloth (1/2") and collected the snow - nice and fluffy from my deck. I got out my dyes and arranged them near the sink. I also took the fabric out of the container with soda ash solution and hand wrung them, arranging the fabric in a crumpled heap in the middle of the wire. Then I carefully built an igloo shaped…

Snow dyeing techniques for creating hand dyed mandalas by Vicki Welsh.

Basic snow dyeing instructions using Procion MX dyes by Vicki Welsh.

I had fun this week with snow dyeing. Check out my blog post which has links to the You Tube video I made as well as my EBooklet on Ice dyeing. Have fun…….dye some fabric with powder dye ………… be pleasantly surprized by the results and sew something with your your unique fabric.

I just wouldn’t be right if I ended January without a Snow Dyeing post! I was in a Snow Dyeing mood on Sunday and thought I would take pictures to share the process again. When I made my first Snow Dyeing Tutorial two years ago, which you can see here, I poured the liquid dye onto the snow. I really like that method when the snow is sticky and wet and I want the colors to blend more. But if I want bright bold colours than mixing the dye powder into the snow gives the best results. And this…

Making tie dye with snow is the ultimate snow day activity. Use snow and dye powder to transform your white items into a new tie dye creation.

When life give you snow, give snow dyeing a try! This has been on my radar for a few years, after buying some snow dyed fabric at a local quilt show a few years ago. A conversation over the week-end with some fellow fiber artists about snow dying yarn reminded me of this technique. I bought some supplies this summer to try out batik dying (but never did), and with the addition of another cold snap, and some fresh snow this week, I "carpe diem'ed". I found this tutorial, from Dharma Trading…

Basic snow dyeing instructions using Procion MX dyes by Vicki Welsh.

Although the recent snowstorm did not live up to the hype in the media we got plenty of fresh snow to get excited for snow dyeing! I started by soaking the fabric in soda ash and water for about 30 minutes. The soda ash is needed for the the dye to latch onto the cotton. I wrung out the fabric and placed in a large pan to catch the drippings as the snow melts. For fun I put recycled containers under the fabric lifting it off the bottom of the pan. One of the cool things about dyeing with…