help dying playsilks - which dharma silk

[abharrington]

ok mamas...i really want to try to make dd some playsilks for christmas (and mynieces as well). so which kind of silk do i want from dharma? and any idea how many (thinking 35"sq) i can dye with 1/2 oz of the acid dye? it says 2lbs but i have NO IDEA how much that is in terms of the silks.

any help much appreciated...from a crafty - wanna be mama

TIA!!

[JamieCatheryn]

The 5oz 35" work well for all kinds of things, anything other than a big canopy really (for that you'd need one of their big veil pieces). They make perfect capes just tied on. An assortment of colors is a big part of the fun, having 3 different ones at least is great. Might as well make 2 of each color you do, that's what we did and it works great. If you had a class of kids or group of friends or big family, one for each and all matching would be nice. Waldorf does this cool thing for festivals where they dye the ones for younger kids less time, older kids for longer to have a progression of color saturation.

I strongly recommend trying out natural things when you acid dye silks, it's so much easier than I thought, same process exactly as with chemicals, gorgeous colors and I felt so proud of myself doing it that way. If you want yellow, turmeric is so beautiful and bright you really should try it.

I dye small things like silks in a big stockpot, and a batch is basically enough to fill it half full. That's a whole lot of silks, more than you'll ever need unless in mass production. So on the small scale you use up materials based on how many batches you do instead of how much you dye. I used half a jar of their acid dye per batch like this.

ETA: just did the math and that sort of batch is anything up to about 5 silks at once.

[abharrington]

wow...thanks JamieCatheryn! that is so helpful. I would love to try natural dyes...do you have an links to tutorials or anything? i'm afraid this mama needs step by step directions and for the silk scarves...when i went to dharmatradingco there were many different types of silk, like different types of material. do you recommend one for playsilks?for the dye, i thought their acid dye was the colored part...so how did you add tumeric to it? i will probably be doing 3 - 4 silks in each colore. maybe as many as 10 - 12 colors.

thanks again for your help...i really want to make these for dd and her cousins for christmas. TIA!

[JamieCatheryn]

Oops sorry I wasn't clear, you could do up to about 9 or 10 silks 35"sq with 1/2oz of their acid dye. So doing 4 silks you'll use half a jar. Their normal kind of silk, Habatoi I think it's spelled, is perfect for these, 5oz weight.

Yes the acid dye is the pigment, I was saying if you'd like to try natural instead you can use turmeric, coffee, water you soaked black beans in, lots of different things, rather than the chemical kind, just need to add some vinegar and simmer a few minutes, exactly the same process as with their dye. I'm afraid I don't have measurements for alternative pigments, but I found I got great color by adding enough so the water starts to look opaque. What color(s) would you like to do?

[MamaWolfe]

I have never dyed silk (will be doing play silks myself here pretty soon), but you can Kool Aid dye them. It works great for wool, I mean GREAT! And is safe, easy, cheap, and quick. (http://tinyurl.com/2zkbpn ) Also, you can get play silks at cost if you join a coop. For example, I'm on one for cloth diapering and they have a ton of other organic/eco-friendly kinds of things. They used to go through Dharma, but now go through Sarah's Playsilks b/c the consensus is that they're better (her website is here http://www.sarahssilks.com/catalog/p.../playsilks.htm). The next one is closing on Nov. 6, so if you wanna join, it's not too late. The coop cost is $1 for 11x11, 2.25 for 22x22, and in numerous sizes up to $12 for 45x72. The coop is in Yahoo! Groups, cloth diaper supplies
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cloth_diaper_supplies/