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Sloan Howard

Sloan Howard

Sloan Howard

Photo: Sloan Howard

Go Ahead: Pick Up a Brush

You can get different effects by using more or less water in the dye mix or on the lace. Using more water in the dye mix and on the lace encourages paler colors and a watercolor effect, and reducing the water in the dye mix and on the lace gives stronger, more saturated colors with less blending. Practice painting on a couple of lace end pieces. 

1. Set up the workspace. Lay a plastic bag or dropcloth on a flat surface. Fill a fine-mist spray bottle with water, and keep it near the workspace for quick touch-ups and to keep unpainted lace damp as you work. If you are using the Permanent Lace Dye Kit, replace each bottle's cap with a sealed dropper cap, then shake the bottles well. Position the divided dish on the dropcloth, along with the paintbrush and towels for blotting.

Gather your tools and materials, prepare your workspace, and mix the dyes to get the colors you wish to use. The Permament Lace Dye kit is shown here.

2. Squeeze one to two drops of each dye color onto a divided plastic plate or other sectioned container, and add 10 drops of water. The dyes are concentrated, so a little goes a long way. For stronger, darker color results using either wet or dry application, increase the ratio of dye to water.

3. Soak the lace in a sink or basin of water. Remove excess water by rolling the lace in a towel, until the lace is just damp. If the lace is lightweight or loosely patterned, spritz it with water from the spray bottle a little at a time as you paint. For the most distinct color separations and saturation, keep the lace completely dry. 

SewStylish Magazine, 
Posted on May 2nd, 2012 in design, how-to, fabric, embellishments, SewStylish, lace, sewstylish spring 2012

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Comments (3)

TheThreadLady writes: Since I dye and paint all kinds of fabric all the time I was happy to see the advice to practice on a less costly piece of lace of the same fabric type first. I learned my dyeing and painting practices from an expert and that was one of her first tips---always practice on something inexpensive before you do the real stuff. It has saved me many, many heartaches over the years.

Posted: 2:42 am on August 29th

Buttonscreates writes: I really like this idea as well. It looks like an ombre effect.
Posted: 5:46 pm on August 28th

buggalcrafts writes: Love this idea! Great way to get exacatlly what you want! I have "dyed" my natural raffia with a permenant marker when I needed just a little. This would prob work a treat on raffia too!
Posted: 7:47 am on May 5th

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