Indigo dyeing results

After many rinses these are my indigo dyed pieces from the weekend, what a huge learning curve!

Our first day was spent making up our individual vats and preparing fabric so that it could dry overnight.

On the second day we began by dyeing a gradation. My pieces had 1 dip (+soda ash dip), 1 dip indigo vat, 5 dips indigo vat, 8 dips indigo vat. It is amazing how much these lightened after all the rinses, however my ipad photos are not showing them as dark as they actually are.

We then worked on our own projects using fabric we brought with us. I stitched up some curved lines using running stitch and overhand stitch:

I also stitched a circle which was pulled up tightly and secured then covered with plastic to give a beautiful moon:

And a silk ombre scarf with one dip all over and 2 or 3 extra dips on the ends:

I am looking forward to the arrival of the portable heating element so I can do more indigo dyeing. Next up will be some Bengal muslin (bought to support the stitching project in India from Ballarat Fibre Forum) for a Traveller’s Blanket with Dijanne Cevaal.