Dye a Fabric Scarf Craft

This year, due to the budget, we are going with a homemade teacher's thank you gift. But, this is no ordinary homemade gift; it is a rather special gift. We are making a dyed silk scarf.

This process will require adult assistance, however, there are steps involved that are very kid friendly.

Materials needed:

Silk scarf or any fabric blank

Fiber reactive dye kit

A steam pot (optional)

A cardboard tube

Wool yarn

Iron

Rubber gloves

We chose a scarf but really any fabric blank would work. We purchased ours from Dharma Trader, they have quite a few options and they are very affordable. Plus you can buy just one! We also purchased a fiber reactive dye kit, ours was a procion dye. Buying a kit makes it easier to make sure you have all necessary parts as well as giving you great instructions that are easy to follow. The kit will make more than one item; we made quite a few scarves making the investment worthwhile.

The technique used was similar to tie-dye. Taking the cardboard tube and wool yarn, we wrapped the scarf around the tube using the yarn to hold the scarf in place. Once reaching the end of the tube, scrunch up the fabric and keep going until the entire scarf is attached. Tie a knot with the yarn to keep it in place. Make sure to bunch the fabric together; you can twist it to create a differing pattern. We started with our scarf folded in half so the patterning would be similar on each end of the scarf. Now, follow the directions for the fiber reactive dye.

We chose to steam set the dye in a cooking steam pot but there are other options you can follow. Having many fiber art materials in the house made the steaming more doable since we have a dedicated steam pot for crafting. Once the dye is set, you can rinse the scarf and hang to dry. Before fully dry, iron the wrinkles out.

Notes:

Fiber reactive dye is caustic '" use caution and adult supervision.

Make sure the yarn is tight. When wrapped to create the blocking of dye to the fabric.

Wool does not react to fiber reactive cold dying; other yarn or string can be used but may not fully block the dye from the fabric. Liquid dye is much safer and less air borne than powder dyes.