Hello everyone, its Q is for Quandie today!
I have a stash of linen napkins that I’ve been meaning to dye. The perfect project to complete while ‘staying at home’.
So I grabbed some Dixie Belle Paint in colors that I thought would be pretty on napkins.
I ended up choosing Mermaid Tail, Antebellum Blue and Honky Tonk Red.
How To:
Step 1: Wash the napkins in hot water. This may or may not be necessary depending on the item you are dying. Since I was using vintage linen napkins that looked as though they hadn’t been washed in decades, washing seemed like a good idea. Another thing to note here, choose a natural fiber like cotton or linen.
Step 2: Fill a wash pan with luke warm water and then add your paint. Stir well, making sure that the paint is fully dissolved and mixed in with the water. If you have clumps of solid paint in your water you will get dark spots of paint on your fabric. You should use approximately 1 part paint to 20 parts water.
Step 3: Add the napkins, still wet from being washed. Some people added dry fabric, some added wet. When I used fabric dye back in the day, I always put items in wet, so I went with that approach.
Step 4: Swish the fabric around for about 5 minutes or so. Some online instructions said to leave it absolutely no longer than 5 minutes, others said to leave it for at least 30 minutes or longer. I went with five minutes on my first batch using the Honky Tonk Red.
Step 5: Remove the napkins from the dye bath and rinse them (or not). I found that rinsing removed quite a bit of the color leaving my napkins a pale pink.
Step 6: Dry the napkins in your clothes dryer using high heat to set to set the color.
Step 7: Press the napkins using high heat to make doubly sure the color is set.
If you’re stuck at home and looking for a fun afternoon craft project, I highly recommend experimenting with dying fabric using chalk paint.
To see how the napkins turned out, head to Q is for Quandie here!
