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Sloan Howard

Sloan Howard

Sloan Howard

Photo: Sloan Howard

5. If the lace becomes oversaturated, blot away the excess. During a wet application, use a paper towel to remove excess dye. If you aren't satisfied with your results, you can completely remove the dye from the lace. Note that dyes are darker when wet.

6. Overdyeing will darken colors that dry too light. Allow the dyed lace to dry completely, then paint additional layers of dye on any area where you wish to intensify the color or accent details of the lace's design.  Don't wet the lace again.

7. Dry the lace. Letting the lace dry naturally allows it to acquire a mottled appearance. Using a hair dryer to speed up the drying process reduces the migration of dye colors as the liquid evaporates, limiting the mottling effect.

8. Once the lace is dry, set the color. Iron it from the wrong side for about 2 minutes, using your iron's wool setting. Heat-setting the color this way also softens the lace.

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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