Hi Louise, I printed a couple of t-shirts but the prints were all blurry, no definition of leaves, only grey stains. Could it be because I left them in the pot overnight? Many thanks, Lola
Hi Lola, no leaving them in the pot won’t cause that. Blurry prints can be for lots of reasons – fabric that wasn’t scoured, a weak mordant, leaves that were soaked for too long or not long enough. Have you had good results at other times? You might find this blog post helpful for troubleshooting the problem:
Hi Louise, I’m wondering about the material of the pot we use… Should it be stainless steel or can an aluminium pot do? in case it reacts or something….
Hello, for eco-print bundles I personally think either pot is fine. If you are doing solid natural dyeing, and want to carefully control what colour you get, you would want to stick to stainless steel. Or if you don’t want to contaminate your aluminium pot with iron, it’s also better to do this method in the stainless steel. I’m not too fussed myself and like the element of chance, but each dyer is different.
Hi Marilyn, I usually iron the fabric after washing and drying it because there are often crinkles in it from the eco-print process. But it is just to get the crinkles out – some people say ironing helps set the colour but really the colour has already been set from the very hot temperatures of cooking the bundle.
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Hi Louise,
I printed a couple of t-shirts but the prints were all blurry, no definition of leaves, only grey stains. Could it be because I left them in the pot overnight?
Many thanks,
Lola
Hi Lola, no leaving them in the pot won’t cause that. Blurry prints can be for lots of reasons – fabric that wasn’t scoured, a weak mordant, leaves that were soaked for too long or not long enough. Have you had good results at other times? You might find this blog post helpful for troubleshooting the problem:
hi…when I do the first gentle machine wash do I add any clothes detergent ?thanks..
Hi Melissa, I do it with plain water, but it would be fine to add a small amount of a mild clothes detergent if you feel it needs that.
Hi Louise, I’m wondering about the material of the pot we use… Should it be stainless steel or can an aluminium pot do? in case it reacts or something….
Hello, for eco-print bundles I personally think either pot is fine. If you are doing solid natural dyeing, and want to carefully control what colour you get, you would want to stick to stainless steel. Or if you don’t want to contaminate your aluminium pot with iron, it’s also better to do this method in the stainless steel. I’m not too fussed myself and like the element of chance, but each dyer is different.
Okey, thanks again for sharing knowledge
Do you ever iron the finished product?
Hi Marilyn, I usually iron the fabric after washing and drying it because there are often crinkles in it from the eco-print process. But it is just to get the crinkles out – some people say ironing helps set the colour but really the colour has already been set from the very hot temperatures of cooking the bundle.