Weekend Fun with Japanese Indigo Dyeing
Now that August is behind us, it’s time to welcome the beginning of the fall season. At our home, kids are back to school, and we returned to the usual routine.
With a bit of more calmness in our daily schedule, my daughter and I spent the weekend doing some indigo dyeing. And it was so much fun! We both love the rich indigo blue color.
I had an old white linen duvet cover from IKEA that had some bad stains. The fabric was still good condition. So I thought I can bring it back to life by dyeing it with indigo. As we were preparing the dye bath, I had another great idea, and decided to add Shirayuki Snow White Kitchen Cloth to the batch! Then we pulled even more items from our closet, which included cotton t-shirts and linen blouses.
We both enjoyed the process, and love the end results. They all turned out great! The last few items we added turned out lighter color than the items that went in first. Different hues of indigo blue are all stunning. I love how the stains on the duvet cover are now part of Wabi Sabi beauty! I now get to sleep on the lovely indigo bedding.
We’re both hooked on it and will definitely do more in the near future. I’m already thinking about what I can dye around the house. I hope you will give it a shot as well!
We used two packages of the Indigo Dye Kit as we were dyeing a large piece of fabric. We prepared a couple of plastic bins, and put on an apron and gloves.
We could see the beautiful indigo hue as soon as the dye hit the water. We prepared the fabric by wetting them completely. Then it was “dunk!” into the dye bath.
The fabric turned vibrant green in the indigo dye bath. After 3 minutes, we took it out and rinse it water. It was incredible to see how the colour changed from green to deep indigo the moment we took them out of the water.
Now all we had to do was rinsing the fabric in water and hang them dry. Dyeing a large piece of fabric, such as a duvet cover, could certainly benefit from some teamwork. We love how they turned out!
We used...
