Well!! I have been tossing this white rayon caftan aside, into drawers and anywhere else that I can't see it. WHAT can I possibly do with this HUGE caftan. I think it was a case of "white page fear".
Yesterday I decided to dye some sports bars that I recently purchased (more WHITE) that needed lots and lots of color. I also dyed burlap, scrim, cotton thread both embroidery and pearl and corn husks which didn't come out. I learned a very important lesson.
Lesson learned:
When you soak fabric in soda ash and use your high speed spinner to extract all the soda ash, you need tons more dye than if you had just hand squeezed out the soda ash.
What happened:
After squirking ALL the dye I had made up on two measley sports bars, a small piece of burlap, an even smaller piece of scrm and two small hanks of floss I ended up filling a spray bottle with soda ash to try to get the dye to MOVE.
After Lesson:
I wrang out the caftan by hand (slightly drippy) laid it out on my open trash bag, did my gathery thing and squirted dye which to my delight wicked and spread through the rayon. See me smiling?
The reults:
close-up of caftan draped as only rayon can...
Aidan my Springer who knows what to do when anyone shows up with a camera!
Later that day I soda soaked 5 yards of white cloth for a new technique I am working on (stay tuned). T H A T is an appropriate use of a high speed spinner. The fabric was dry, folded and put aside for another play day within a hour. I think I loved my
high speed spinner just a bit too much. When used for the correct thing, it is invaluable but when not...learn from my lesson.