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Learning: Dyeing Hand Towels

Mar 1, 2016. The snow for ice-dyeing is gone for the moment, but I needed an antidote to shuffling tax papers. You rarely see terry cloth towels in any but solid colors, but I've been intrigued about whether they'd make good subjects. I decided to start small -- with two towels -- and use a standard technique I learned from Jane Dunnewold in her Craftsy course "The Art of Cloth Dyeing."

Materials

• 2 terry cloth towels (16 x 27 in, bought in bulk from Amazon)
• containers just big enough to hold the towels squished up. The bottoms of soda bottles were perfect. A test showed that 4 cups of liquid would cover the towels.
• Chemicals: 1/2 c. salt, 1/3 c. soda ash, 1/2 c. washing soda, powdered Procion dyes (I used 3. Two would have been fine.)

Process

I encourage you to take the Craftsy course, if you're interested. I'm just touching on the basics here. I'm using a "layered" color method here. Just using one color is easier for a beginner.

• Prep: Towels are prepared by washing with detergent (no softeners/no additives) and 1/2 c. washing soda, then drying without fabric sheets. The point is to remove anything that would impede with the dye chemistry.
• Stuff the towels DRY into their containers. One towel was just scrunched, with edges at bottom and center at top. The other was folded accordian-style and held with 4 rubber bands; also banded in a round stone. I wanted to know if I could get a patterned shibori (tie-dye) effect, but didn't want to have a lot of white remaining, so I kept the ties on the loose side.
• Base liquid. I make this by the gallon and use as needed: 1 gallon of warm tap water + 1/3 c. soda ash (a fixative) + 1/2 c. table salt (optional color enhancer). Mix thoroughly.
• Mix dye: Pour 4 c. of base liquid into each of 2 1-qt. jars. To one, added 1 t. Bahama Blue. To the other 1 t. Peacock Blue. Stir well till dye is dissoved. (Must wear a mask to avoid inhaling toxic dye dust!)
• Add to towels: pour 1/2 the Bahama Blue on each towel (down the side, aiming for the bottom). Then pour 1/4 of the Peacock Blue on each towel.
• More mixing: add a 1/2 t. of Sun Yellow to the remaining Peacock Blue to make green. Pour this onto each towel. I gave the towels each a poke then to make sure the liquid was absorbing.
• Set aside: cover the two containers with a towel and let the dye solution spend itself overnight -- about 24 hrs.
• Wash: Throw towels in washing machine (with some other old towels to balance load). Wash on COLD with a squirt of blue Dawn. Then, wash on HOT with another squirt of blue Dawn. Dry in dryer.

Results

I'm not wild about the colors. The Sun Yellow produced too much green for my taste. But the towel on the left shows that using some shibori (tying, as in tie-dye) patterns might be interesting. The one on the right is... meh.

The learning continues...

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