I’ve decided to make some cushions for my newly painted patio chairs.
I have this in mind ever since I saw this Sunset Magazine article on making shibori pillows. I have some left over canvas, I had some dyes, why not?
So now I’m trying to pretty up my patio, now that it’s exposed to all onlookers, the shibori pillow idea was back.
And I probably should have stuck with that but I started to imagine little cushions that matched the color of some lovely fall mums.
Interior of that pale yellow and edges of the lovely russet color.
My dyes are Non Reactive Fiber Dyes from Dharma Trading Company
They’re a powder so I can blend a little of this and a little of that. My first ‘little of that’ turned the whole tub a beautiful grass green, which is now in a jar waiting for me to think of something to do with it.
I got the yellow mixed and there was a lot of fussing around trying to get the hue just right. But of course I was trying to multitask, because I’m never going to be one of those people who can just sit down and focus on one thing for long periods of time.
So my process was like this: mix the color, add in a little urea and a lot of salt, let the fabric soak until the color looked right, and some soda ash, let is set a little more, then throw it in the washer for a rinse and spin and hang it up to dry.
I had a whole “soak in a bleach bath’ episode when I thought the yellow was too bright which now I totally regret.
Then I folded the fabric into the cushion shapes I wanted and let the edges soak in the russet dye. (This was what the vestiges of the shibori idea.)
One more rinse and spin and there is was. A very messy dye job and the colors don’t actually match the flowers. sigh
But, I got more practice working with the powdered dyes, which was fun but surprisingly takes a lot of salt.
I would love to get as good as this but we’ll see.
I’m going to say they are a nice little bit of color and will do until I find something better.
But it was worth a try!