Dyeing for sting ray outfit
Once the silk is stitched and gathered it is ready to dye ( previous work) it needs to be soaked prior to dyeing.
A good long soaking will prevent the dye from penetrating into the resisted areas. In the photo you can finally see that this is a matelasse and the wavy lines. This will be dyed in Lanaset black, DOS 5% based on the total weight of the cloth. Now some small amount of the silk won't dye but with black darker is better.
When it came out of the dyepot it looked totally black, as it should.
I actually lightened this photo so you could see some detail. But do we have any white spots? Very carefully cut the stitching thread with a seam ripper (many a piece has been made holey at this step), and --release breath-- there are white spots.
The threads are removed while it is wet, I hang it to dry. Then I wash it once gently and iron it and you can see the pattern.
This is for the side front bodice, a small curved pieced. I made 2 lines of shibori for each piece, one straight and one curved. I was suspicious that the curved pattern would look different. It does. Grace says that since the piece is on the bias we can cut it on the straight line and steam it to curve it. At least we have some choices.
