Name: Barb

Message: I am not finding much information on variegated silk ribbon dyeing.  I am planning on using bias-cut silk ribbon to dye a garnet and hunter green color, similar to a hannah silk ribbon, and will need 180 yards.  I will also be dyeing 250 yards a solid garnet color. I just do not know what would be the best dye to use and what technique.  I am using the ribbon to make Christmas ornaments for a ladies brunch and have a tight budget.  I would appreciate your input.

There are many ways to dye or paint 100% silk ribbon. Silk is an exceptionally easy-to-dye fiber. You can dye it like cotton, at a high pH, or like wool, at a low (acid) pH, or you can use fabric paints or even fabric markers. The easiest and least expensive way to dye silk is according to the cotton recipe for Procion MX dye, because no heat-setting is necessary. Follow the instructions on my Procion MX hand dyeing instructions page. 

However, silk dyed with soda ash tends to be softer and a little bit less shiny than silk dyed with acid. If the shininess of your ribbon is very important, use an acid recipe, instead, with vinegar or citric acid instead of vinegar, and steam the silk to set the dye. You can use acid dyes or reactive dyes when you dye with this method. The most wash-resistant of acid dyes are found among the Lanaset dyes.

Here is an excerpt from Elin Noble's excellent book, Dyes & Paints: A Hands-On Guide to Coloring Fabric, which is useful whether you use Procion dye or acid dye: Dyeing your ribbon a solid color can be done in a bucket with Procion dyes, or on the stovetop with acid dyes, after tying the ribbon as described above.

You can buy Procion MX dyes in premixed colors of hunter green or garnet red, but the colors may separate out into the colors they were mixed from at the edges, especially if you do not thicken your dye. If you are very interested in not having your colors spread or blend on the ribbon, you can thicken your dye with sodium alginate, or you can use an instant-set color fabric paint. 

Colorhue Instant-set Silk Dyes are claimed by the manufacturer to be fiber reactive dyes, but they appear instead to be a type of fabric paint which binds to the silk as soon as it hits it. It is not useful for color mixing or for the watercolor effect, but could be very useful when those are exactly what you do not want. The Colorhue Instant-set Silk dyes are less economical than Procion MX dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye, Colorado Wholesale Dyes, or Dharma Trading Company.

If you want to add metallic highlights to your ribbon, the best metallic fabric paint is Jacquard's Lumiere, which will work nicely on dyed silk ribbon.

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