Dip Dye That Fabric

Dip dyeing fabric is a super cool way to restore life and vigour to old fabric be it a loved T shirt or linen sheet that’s begging to be a curtain!

STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR DIP-DYEING FABRIC WITH CHALK PAINT™

  1. Create your dye by adding 1 tablespoon of Chalk Paint™ to roughly 1 litre of tepid water in a bucket or large bowl. Stir thoroughly to ensure the paint is completely dispersed.

  2. Dip your fabric into the dye and agitate the fabric until the whole piece is evenly dyed. If little lumps of pigment settle on the fabric rub it hard in the water and it will dissolve.

  3. Do not leave the fabric to soak. Remove from the water and leave to drip-dry outdoors or next to a heater.

  4. Once completely dry, iron or tumble dry the fabric to seal the colour. Do not use salt, this tends to increase colour bleed.

  5. You can then wash your material on a 30ºC wash with very little or no colour loss. NB. if you use a stronger quantity of paint in your dye, there might be more colour loss when washed.

Once you’ve learned this technique for dip-dyeing fabric with Chalk Paint™, you can experiment using different paint colours and materials. You might find this method will work well on leather and silk too!

PS I hope you have as much fun as my daughter and I did when we were dyeing these pieces in the garden!

Jane Warnick