WIP Deep Stash Edition: dyeing the last of the ventana twill

Well, it's not the last of the twill in my house, per se.

This was purchased in early covid, from a shop that no longer exists, anticipating a need that did not entirely arise at the time. I have storage space. I can stash.

Later, ran across Dharma Trading's handpainting dye flyer, 

https://www.dharmatrading.com/blogs/a/fiber-reactive-dye-the-cold-batch-method

and bought a set of the dye for painting. Wasn't this set, but it was close. bought a couple other colors and the extra bits (urea, sodium alginate, soda ash I already had). Dharma puts all the information on their webpage and it's worth your time to read that before you buy things, so you know what you're going to need beyond physical supplies).

https://www.dharmatrading.com/collections/dye-kits-starter-sets/products/fiber-reactive-dye-custom-color-sets?color=Jewel+Tones+%286+Colors%29%3A+2+Bright+Yellow+-+6+Deep+Orange+-+10+Fire+Red*+-+18+Deep+Purple+-+23A+Electric+Blue*+-+30A+New+Emerald+Green*

Ideas collided.

Time passed.

Staycation 2026 arrived:

Supplies!

Building a frame to work on. 

Reinforcing over-extended aluminum extension poles with bamboo

Duct tape. When gaffers tape would be overkill.

Perfect weather. Not too hot, and dry.

Workbench (back stairs)

The cross bars are bamboo from the forest in my side yard. It was out of control when I moved here in 1996; time has not improved that situation, but it does mean I have a steady supply of six to eight foot poles.

Ending with the yardage hanging indoors because Seattle is one damn raccoon festival.

I decided my best bet with two and a half yards of medium weight twill was to wash it in a tub with a dab of Synthrapol, and then do the rinses in the washing machine with some sacrificial towels to distribute the weight in the spin cycle.

And it has faded. And I will redo the red and add some black details. I need more dye in my paint mix; this was a quarter teaspoon to a cup of solution.

My inspiration for this was this material

This last slide is my talking point. I don't want to dump coagulants, paint, dye, chemicals down the drain. The dab of Synthrapol couldn't be helped, my other cautions make up for that I feel. Maybe they don't. I am not set up for a yard sink that drains into a bucket I run through a filter, I don't do enough painting for that.

What I have started doing is dumping out the contents onto rags and let them dry. I have a lot of them (this might resemble a four or five inch remnant off a too-long tshirt I have hemmed, because that is what it is).

I will make a pair of pants out of the twill over the winter.