Low-immersion dyeing experiment!

So decided to have a play with some Procion dyeing today, and i thought i'd record what i did!

boring stuff first with no pics..
1) Prewash fabric in a little bit of washing liquid/powder (overlock it first if it's likely to fray!)

2) Prepare your dyeing area - bowls, measuring spoons & cups, rubber gloves, old towels, dyes & soda ash

3) With slightly damp fabric, wrinkle it all up and cram it into the bowls, so it looks a bit like brains... (you need bowls that are small enough to hold it crumpled)

4) Mix up your dyes in warm water..
i had just under 1lb of dry fabric per batch, so for batch one i used 1tsp of dye/1cup of water - 2C of baby blue, 2C turquoise, 1C grape & 1C navy - to get pretty intense colours..
then batch two i used 2.5tsp baby blue/2C water, 1.5tsp turquoise/2C water, 0.5tsp grape/1C water & 0.5tsp navy/1C water - to get slightly lighter shades of everything except the baby blue..

5) Once you've worked out your colour combos (with smaller pieces of fabric 1-2 colours is best, bigger pieces you could use more if you want), pour your first colour randomly over your fabric, then the second colour, making sure to get the edges (see why i do this in the bath?!) and keep track of how much liquid you have added!!

6) Leave it to sit for up to an hour (i did about 40min, then got impatient!) then add your soda ash... you need 1tsp for every cup of liquid added.. so however much you poured on with the dye plus however much you think you will need to dissolve the soda ash in..?!
ie- i used 1300ml/5.2C of water+dye total
plus 2C of water to dissolve the soda ash in
so i used 7tsp soda ash in 2C of water

7) Leave it to sit for at least an hour, then rinse the excess dye out

8) Wash the fabric with a little bit of washing powder/liquid, dry, then you're done!

Finished photos to come! ;-)