Name: Tamsin
Message: Hi,
I've just checked through your FAQs, so hopefully I"m not asking something you've already answered! I'm just about to try dyeing cotton velvet - I'm getting married in November, and want something that's blue but with a similar degree of colour variation to the picture of your two-fish snap crotch baby shirt's background. You say in your description that you dyed the background later on - could I ask how you managed to get such beautiful variation? I too am after varying shades of blue and turquoise, and the material looks just like what I'm hoping for, so any suggestions you might be able to make would be fantastic.

The beautiful variation in that case was the result of direct dye application. I presoaked the waxed garment in soda ash and applied blue and yellow dye according to the tie dye recipe, using Procion Mx dyes, cerulean blue (Procion blue MX-G), turquoise (Procion turquoise MX-G), and yellow (Procion MX yellow-8G). What I would recommend, instead, however, would be low water immersion dyeing, using the same type of dye. In this form of dyeing, you place the fabric into a small bucket that has only enough room for the fabric to fit approximately halfway full. The fabric should not have room to move around in its container.

Both cotton velvet and silk/rayon velvet will dye well when you use the soda ash recipe with Procion MX type dyes. There are several sources in the UK for Procion MX dyes that are listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page; scroll down on that page to the section on suppliers in Europe. One side benefit of dyeing your fabric before sewing it into garments is that the garments should be washable afterwards, especially if they are unlined. Prewashing the fabric so that it shrinks before sewing is the secret. Of course, dyeing requires a great deal of washing.

Please dye your fabric sooner rather than later, in case it does not work out exactly as you expect. I believe that it will be beautiful, though. Hand-dyed velvet is always more beautiful than the cotton knit that was used in my baby shirt.

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