Dyed fur in the wash

tokozdragon:

emissaryofwind:

tokozdragon:

Continued from dyeing things I shouldn’t because I can.

Afficher davantage

Did you set these with white vinegar? (Does that even do anything for synthetics?)

Vinegar doesn’t do a darn thing for iDye Poly and Rit DyeMore. iDye Poly comes with a chemical carrier (”color enhancer” i think it’s called?) that helps the dye penetrate into polyester fibers.  I don’t use it unless I have to because I’m sensitive to the smell (it’s not that toxic, though. basically don’t eat it or use it without decent ventilation). DyeMore doesn’t appear to need a separate carrier and doesn’t offer one. 

Vinegar as an all-purpose thing to make any dye work better is a myth. Acid dyes, which work on protein fibers (silk, wool) and nylon (because nylon is weird like that), use vinegar, usually. Fiber-reactive dyes, which work on cellulose fibers (plant-based: cotton, rayon, linen, etc) generally use salt, soda ash or a couple other chemicals. Synthetics dyes use heat and chemical carriers.  This is why knowing your fiber content is important. Know your fiber content before you dye! 🙂

If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend Paula Burch’s All About Hand Dyeing website. She has great, solid info that’s easy for lay-people to understand without being simplistic. When I’m confused, she’s the first place I’ll check. 

Dying faux fur with iDye Poly or Rit DyeMore

tokozdragon:

or, “Stupid Things Tokoz Does When She Doesn’t Want to Work on her Dang Costumes”

Hi. I have too much fabric, an electric stove, and a predilection for collecting jars of chemicals.  I’m also a fabric snob. I wanted a specific color and type of fur. It didn’t exist. I said “heck, I’ll just dye it!” then went to find tutorials online.  Surprisingly, while there are several perfectly good, well-established, highly effective and reliable ways to color fur (with acrylic paint, sharpie “dye” , even chalk pastels) using dyes on fur usually ends in failure.   But logic never stopped me and my cosplay neuroses before! 

Keep reading

learning-to-sew:

h—o—o—t:

Part 1 of my tea dyeing tutorial

Part 2 is here

pomegranateandivy:

screamingnorth:

gunmetalskies:

Here’s a “life-hack” for you.

Apparently concentrated Kool-Aid can be used as a pretty effective leather dye.

I was making a drink while cutting the snaps off some new straps for my pauldrons and I got curious, so I tried it, thinking, “ok even if this works, it will just wash out.”

Nope.

It took the “dye” (undiluted) in about 3 seconds. After drying for about an hour and a half, it would not wash off in the hottest tap-water. It would not wash out after soaking for 30 minutes.
It did not wash out until I BOILED it, and even then, only by a tiny bit and it gave it a weathered look that was kind of cool.
Add some waterproofing and I’d wager it would survive even that.

That rich red is only one application too.
Plus it smells great, lol.

So there you go, cheap, fruity smelling leather dye in all the colors Kool-Aid has to offer.

WELL THEN!

this may be important to some of my followers *and certainly not just getting reblogged because of my costuming and my boyfriends desire for leather armor*

Painting the skirt

Painting the skirt

Due to space restrictions, I could only do one half at a time.

Adding the horsehair braid to finish the hem.

Finished costume.

Finished costume.

Close-up of wig and contact lenses.

pinnedtogether:

When was the last time I posted any real content? Been awhile. So here we go, some of the backlog. This is an outfit I put together for Halloween this year, sort of an abstract ‘siren’ luring the hapless to a watery demise. Circle lenses from Pinky Paradise, wig (sadly discontinued) from Arda.

Fabric Dying with Dye-na-Flow

Dye-na-Flow is a paint from Jacquard that is designed to act like a dye on both natural and synthetic fabrics. I chose it to do the dying on a circle skirt I made for Halloween at Teslacon this year. The skirt itself is white crepe-backed satin. The pattern is one I copied from a book, but they’re pretty easy to come by.

The color is actually a mix, half-and-half turquoise and chartreuse, diluted out to the consistency I wanted. The paints are very pigmented, so you can thin them out about 2-1 without any trouble. To dye the skirt, I laid the whole thing out on my dinning room table with freezer paper underneath. If you have the room, though, I’d suggest doing it on the floor. The one drawback to doing it the way I did was that I had to let one half dry before I could do the other, and this left distinct ‘edges.’ In my case it didn’t matter, because I wanted it to look like the color had crept up from the hem of the skirt unevenly. Before I added the paint, I sprayed the section I wanted to work on down with a squirt bottle full of plain water. Then I painted on the color with a large watercolor brush. The thinned paint and wet fabric meant the color wicked and spread in a very organic way. You can see the variation in the final product.

Once the skirt was dry, I ironed the whole thing to heat-set the color. Then I added horsehair braid to the hem. There’s also a silk organza underskirt to give it more body.