Notable Hands : Notable Hands - Craft

Rodarte Fall 2008

Let's talk about dyeing fabrics at home.

This is also one of the essential tools in textile design, and one that designer usually opt for when they’re looking for specific shades in their own collections - ones that are not available from fabrics manufacturers.

Rodarte, the brand created by sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy, works with a specialized fabric-dyer to get a unique shade for their collections. For instance, once they spent months looking of the perfect red-cock shade. This means that they use a lot of time, and resources for the coloring of their collections. That’s how important color is.

You can practice fabric dyeing at home too - either with natural, or synthetic colorants. Say you want a shirt to look ivory instead of crisp white; you can just dip it into a black tea pot for a few minutes/seconds until you see the perfect shade. Remember, after the fabric dries out, the fabrics looks lighter.

But when you are using strong colorants, it is always useful to try the exact shade you want with a small piece of the same fabric you’re using beforehand, and after you got it, you can actually dye the real fabric.

Some fibers are easier to dye. With synthetic materials, you might not even be able to change their shade, but wool, silk, cotton and linen are the best and friendlier materials to dye at home.