Silk Dyeing with Tissue Paper

At the Shuttlebug guild on Wednesday, we dyed silk scarf blanks with special tissue paper that bleeds its dye when wet.

We selected strips of tissue paper in various colours and tore them into smaller strips. We then put our silk blank on a paper plate and sprayed it with water that had some vinegar in it and placed the coloured tissue paper pieces on the wet silk. The colour bled onto the silk. We folded the silk over and kept adding tissue, covering all the white parts until the whole length had been folded up. Then the corners were tucked over and we put it in a Ziploc bag for transportation home.

Once home, I hung my scarf up to dry with a newspaper under it to catch any colour drips. I still need to heat-set the colour.

It was an inexact science with pretty good results although the colours were rather muted.

It was a quick and easy 'make and take' project.

I just need to remember to take my scarf to the meeting next month for show and tell.