Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Microwave dyeing

Remember my Ugly Wet Studio Corner? Well I am contemplating buying a microwave to sit atop the fridge for fabric dyeing. In this climate I have had to bundle up all my pieces of fabric wrap them to ensure no drips and hoick them all through the house and leave a heater on in the closed study all night to ensure that the fabric cures at the required temperature. ( And even then I am not getting very bright jewel like hues. Of course, I don't really know what I am doing having only had three attempts, but I do believe that it is possible to cure the fabric in the nicrowave to ensure that it quickly gets to the right tenperature. Or is this juts for non cotton fabrics?

Has any one else tried this and if so do you have any advice for me?

3 comments:

Vicki W said...

When I an dyeing fabric in a cool space - my basement in the winter - I use a space heater placed enar the containers and leave it on for at least 1 hour. I've never tried microwaving ut would be interested in hearig your results if you try it!

Donna said...

I often microwave fabric -- Dye it, remove it from the liquid, wrap in plastic wrap and microwave a couple of minutes before rinsing. Works great for me... Others I know use an old electric fry pan or a hot plate or a slow cooker/crock pot to deal with cooler dyes.

If you're going for a microwave check out a flea market an old used one works fine for dyes....

Threadspider said...

I've done the same as quiltpixie-it works well but depending what you use, it's quite smelly!