Dyeing a Silk Scarf

My kitchen smells... interesting... right now!  The pot on the stove has tea, turmeric, and vinegar in it!  But I should back up and explain how I got here. 

I bought a white habutai silk scarf at the Goodwill thrift store for a few bucks.  It's 34" x 35", with a hand-rolled hem.  Because it's clearly made for dyeing, I decide to dye it and see how I like dyeing.  I use two methods of dyeing: tea-dyeing, and Sharpie-marker/alcohol dyeing. 

white silk habutai

INITIAL RESEARCH

I start with a Google search: "how to paint silk scarf" and get a bunch of results that require me to buy fabric paint.  Oh, Google, how have your complex algorithms not yet figured out that I am always looking for the cheaper DIY option?  Then I land on this page, which talks about how to "paint" using Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol.  I have those things lying around! 

There's only one problem: the results are bright clear colors, and I want richer, autumnal tones.  Think, think, think...  I could tea-stain them first, then dye them with the sharpies! 

TEA STAINING

first dye-bath

scarf twisted up

dyeing

One night I brew up a very dark black tea, using three Red Rose tea bags.  I splash some apple cider vinegar in there for "bite", to help the fibers hold the color.  (Online tutorials suggest white vinegar, but I can't find any in my laundry room, so I go for the apple cider stuff I have in the kitchen.)  After twisting the scarf into a cord, so that some areas will resist the dye, I submerge it in the brew and stack the tea bags on top of the cord in hopes that those areas will stain even darker.  I leave it overnight.  The next morning, here's what I have. 

Hmm... not enough color. Think, think, think...

I decide to repeat the process with a different color tea.  This time I brew up one tea-bag of Celestial Seasonings "Lemon Zinger", which has hibiscus flowers and rose hips in it, which make for a reddish tea.  I add a big pinch of turmeric and more apple cider vinegar.  This time, when I twist the silk into a cord, I do it opposite of last time, so that what had been ends before are now hidden in the middle and vice versa. 

second dye-bath

The results after the second bath are nice:

The turmeric made a great stain!

I press it, and it's ready for the next step. 

SHARPIE AND RUBBING ALCOHOL

My next step is to pin out the scarf on a large cardboard base and start doodling on it with Sharpie markers.  (The reason for Sharpie markers is because they are alcohol-based, and so when I spray them with alcohol they will run, which is the goal.)  I discover, to my dismay, that I don't have big markers, only fine-tipped ones.  Oh well, let's see how it goes! 

scarf pinned to cardboard

a wee doodle in green

The fine-tipped Sharpies are tricky to write with because the silk keeps shifting, but I quickly get the hang of a light, barely-there stroke with lots of re-drawing the same line.  I draw a swirly sprig in the corner, then spray with isopropyl alcohol to see how it changes. It doesn't blur and splotch as much as the examples I've seen online, but then again, I am not using nearly as much ink, either.  What does happen is that the scratchy edges of the lines soften and blur, and a sort of halo effect happens with diluted ink: green dilutes to yellow, red to pink, and blue to lavender.  I proceed slowly, building my picture up in layers.  For example, when drawing the purple sweet pea, I scratch out basic flower shapes in magenta ink, and cross-hatch with blue ink, then spray with alcohol.  The magenta and blue run together to look purple.  Then I take more of the blue ink and draw in clearer lines around the edges so the flowers still look like flowers.  Similarly, with the clover, I re-touch the blurred flowers after they have dried, and add a few more leaves as well, so the picture has a mix of blurry lines and sharp ones.  The more layers I add, the cooler it looks, like botanical prints on an old parchment.

my reference picture

Clover up top has been sprayed. Clover at bottom is still being drawn.

The more I work on it, the more I like it, though it's straying pretty far from my original autumnal vision! 

PROCESS SHOTS

Here are some process pics and the lessons I'm learning as I go.  Let's start with blueberries.  I draw the blueberries in (first pic, nice sharp lines), then spray with isopropyl alcohol (second pic) so the ink starts to run.  I like the way the color looks richer at this point; it makes me think of flow blue ceramicware.  However, it's also blobby and ill-defined, so I go back in and draw in the details, as well as some leaves. 

1. blueberries drawn

2. alcohol sprayed

3. more details drawn in

What I've learned is that the dark inks look a lot messier when they blur than the light ones do...  Like, if you look at the pineapple-weed (Matricaria discoidea) in the lower left corner, you can see the green ink runs to yellow, which is not distracting.  But the blue ink runs bright blue, so must be used more carefully. 

Let's see how a rose develops, step by step. This is a wild rose of some type. 

1. rose drawn in red and magenta

2. rose sprayed with alcohol. Look at it run!

3. more details added

PRE-WASH PICTURES

Here's the whole scarf when I'm done all my drawing and spraying:

Aw, my mom was right: I AM special. :P

White flowers are the hard ones to represent... I use black ink to draw the outlines after the  alcohol is all dried and evaporated. 

Siberian squill on the left, strawberries in the middle

purple sweet pea and pineapple-weed on the left, Hudson Bay eyebright and forget-me-not in the middle, and Canada mayflower and forget-me-nots on the right

Siberian squill and poppy and clover

Canada mayflower, forget-me-not, raspberry, yarrow

Left corner: forget-me-nots and columbine and yarrow. Center: blue-eyed grass, pineapple-weed, and lesser stitchwort. Right: dandelion and birdsfoot trefoil

I just love dandelions! I used Sharpie metallic pens to get the seeds of the puff-ball, and used a black fine-tipped marker for the petals of lesser stitchwort.

SETTING AND WASHING

The next, scary, step is to set the ink and wash the scarf.  It's scary because now, after all this work, I really like the scarf as-is and don't want to see it all run down the drain!  But the ink must be set so I can wear it.  So... first, a vinegar bath (1 cup water and a half-up vinegar). I dip the scarf in there, then put it in a plastic colander over a basin of water and microwave for a minute.  It comes out steaming. 

I rinse it in cool water until the water runs clear.  Then I wash it with Synthrapol, which is a detergent that removes excess dye from fabric, so it won't run in future washings.  When I wash in Synthrapol and hot water, the water turns green!

cool water rinse

Synthrapol wash

I roll it in a towel to press excess water out.  Then I iron it, and look how pretty it is! 

It might be a teensy bit less vibrant than the pre-wash, but still really pretty! 

The ink ran in a few places, probably during the microwaving step when the scarf was crumpled in a bowl and the brightest spots were touching other parts of the scarf: 

But none of those spots are distractingly bad. 

Now I just need to find a good outfit to wear it with, to showcase its loveliness.  :) 

I have very much enjoyed my first foray into silk dyeing.  I would like to do this again! 

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(Floral news: the Google Doodle today honors Ynés Mexía, an accomplished and famous botanist!)