Hand Dyeing: Success!

I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but summer's finally hit here and it's sweltering! My kitties have been melting all over the place and we've been having a lot of drowsy siestas.

On the upside of things, laundry has been very quick to dry, which has been so useful as I have been trying out different techniques and colors when dyeing, so I've been able to quickly know what a finished piece of fabric would look like.

And I have done a lot of pieces. Around 20 I'd say! Thank goodness for old bed sheets, am I right? It's been trial and error as I figured out what I was doing wrong, what was working and what wasn't. My cats have  been very curious and "helpful" about the whole thing!

I've been trying to get the underwater look the whole time, and it's been a brutal learning curve (if you've read my last post about hand dyeing, you'll know I had an Artistic Crisis of Monumental Proportions). But I'm happy to say that I finally, after three days of complete madness, I got the result I wanted!

Isn't it just so pretty?? (humble, I know). But honestly, it was such a relief to finally figure out what I was doing wrong and what really wasn't working. In summary, I had to learn the following:

1. How much salt to add to the dye mixture
2. Which brand was working (and which one wasn't!)
3. How to precisely mix the color green, as it washed out kind of yellowish if I didn't do it right
4. How to fold the fabric just right, so the effect I wanted would work

And I'm just delighted at how it came out!

This is definitely fit for a mermaid, and I can't wait to start stitching one!