Name: Caron
Message: Hi Paula,
I am a Shibori artist working mostly with silk. I have been considering trying shibori on poly microfibre as I love the idea of setting texture (pleats etc.) permanently. I have come across numerous well known shibori artists who use polyester microfibre to make shibori scarves, that look like they have been dip-dyed - see www.textilesyuh.com/en/index.html for an example of a dot epidermis scarf. Since polyester is so difficult to dye, I was wondering if you may know how they achieved the two tone effect on the fabric.

I think you should certainly try this.

People who have never dyed anything before in their lives are always writing to me asking how they can dye an expensive formal polyester dress, in time for a wedding in one or two weeks. I have to try to discourage them; it's a bad idea for them, for all sorts of reasons. Dyeing polyester is just not a good project for novices, besides the obvious problems in dyeing dry-clean-only formals. (Where would they even find a pot large enough to boil their large dresses in, how could the dresses themselves survive such rough treatment, and who could bear to dedicate a large expensive cooking pot to non-food-use-only, if they're not planning ever to dye anything again?)

You, on the other hand, are already skilled with dyeing. Moreover, dyeing scarf lengths of polyester is much more sensible than trying to dye a whole formal dress, and a few failures, if you had any, would cost you much less. This project should be well within your abilities.

I would like to strongly encourage you to order disperse dye from ProChem (or from Rainbow Silks in the UK or Batik Oetoro in Australia), and explore ProChem's instructions for various techniques. Immersion dyeing will produce solid shades, and can be combined with shibori techniques, while iron-ons that you create, using disperse dye paints, stamp pads, or fabric crayons, will allow all manner of other effects. With heat transfer shibori, the greatest challenge, and creative opportunity, lies in deciding how you can fold, pleat, or stitch your fabric in a way that will work with your iron. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".