You can use them dry or slightly wet. Some people find they roll up better when slightly wet. You just don’t want them so wet that the dye will seep everywhere.
Hi Louse, if I have a dye blanket to put over a silk or a wool fabric, do I have to treat the fabric , I mean the silk or wool , with soy or iron? The leaves I know will work on silk and wool wthout a mordant but what about the colour on the dye blanket….?
Hello, you don’t ever need to treat wool with soy as the idea of the soy milk is to mimic the proteins that make wool take up dye so well. Soy milk can help silk take up a bit more colour, but I don’t personally think it is worth the effort. I’d use them unmordanted and they will probably take up the dye blanket well. If you use iron, go easy on it with silk and wool as they are more sensitive to it than cotton is. Alum would be a better choice if you really want to mordant them for use with a dye blanket but as I said, you don’t need to.
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Hi are your dye blankets completely dry when you use them? Thanks.
You can use them dry or slightly wet. Some people find they roll up better when slightly wet. You just don’t want them so wet that the dye will seep everywhere.
Hello Louise,
How long do you soaked for the leaves in iron? thanks!
I soak them in iron for just a few minutes.
Hi Louse, if I have a dye blanket to put over a silk or a wool fabric, do I have to treat the fabric , I mean the silk or wool , with soy or iron? The leaves I know will work on silk and wool wthout a mordant but what about the colour on the dye blanket….?
Hello, you don’t ever need to treat wool with soy as the idea of the soy milk is to mimic the proteins that make wool take up dye so well. Soy milk can help silk take up a bit more colour, but I don’t personally think it is worth the effort. I’d use them unmordanted and they will probably take up the dye blanket well. If you use iron, go easy on it with silk and wool as they are more sensitive to it than cotton is. Alum would be a better choice if you really want to mordant them for use with a dye blanket but as I said, you don’t need to.