The Great Experiment

Well Folks, welcome to my super big day of experimenting with dyes. As you all know who make dolls or clothes, or quilts, or anything to do with cloth, indigo blue is a color used for dyeing blue jeans, fabrics, and I am sure lots of other things for ages in every country. Not only has it been used for so long, it is a prized color as well. The cost of antique indigo fabric has gone through the roof. I know this as I have bought some when I could afford to, and bought it because it is getting harder to find. I decided, ( with my big brain ) that I should try to make me some fabric using this dye. Well, you will see some of the results. It is fairly easy to do a dye, just dipping the fabric into the vat, of course you will just get a darker piece of clothes, as I have no idea how to get the markings like they did in the old factories, or new ones for that matter, but it is a beginning. Light bulbs are beginning to turn on in my head. I have to read up on it more, but I think they used wax to keep the dye from settling into all the fabric, and of course they would have had huge machines to do this. As I only need smaller amounts, I can experiment with this, after I do some home work and try to figure out the exact process on a small scale. Tie dyeing is not the answer, it would have to be a regular pattern to be usable for clothes making for the dolls. I did find out that the Japanese do tie dye and have for heaven knows how long, not only them, but so many countries down through the ages. If you have ever seen the movie ( Troy ) with Brad Pitt you will see the most  beautiful blue fabrics they used in that movie. So blue it just made you look at it as long as you could. Have fun looking at the pictures and me trying to do this. I think the first session of dyeing was great and the clothes I dyed I will show in the next post. Who says you can't go back in time. HaHa We will see what can be done to reclaim some of the beauty of the past without going to the poor house. Oh, yes, thanks to my best helper, my husband who never fails to jump in and try to make my experiments work.