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hiyoko-chan — + Gradient Dyeing Tutorial +

Published: 2008-10-16 19:52:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 75344; Favourites: 1142; Downloads: 1233
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Description [EDIT 3] - VIDEO VERSION!! [link]

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[EDIT 2] - sorry for some reason comments were disabled, but you have any questions feel free to ask XD

[EDIT] - Made a few more notes to help I'll HOPEFULLY have a video of gradient dyeing this summer. I'll keep every1 posted on that

GRADIENT DYEING + RIKKU SCARF TUTORIAL

This tutorial covers gradient dyeing for monotone colors or multiple colors. This is also a tutorial on how to CROCHET a Rikku scarf but sorry not for how to make the Songstress sideskirt. I just used it as an example of one color gradient dyeing.

Also, this tutorial is tailored towards using Rit dye, it is often recommended that you find a dye that matches the fibers of your fabric. I use cotton blends alot so i use Rit in that case There's dyes like Dylon and dye from the Dharma Trading Co that tailors towards silk, rayon, etc.

PS: Yuna thief blades were made by my awesome for my bday XD XD i'll be doing Thief Yuna possibly for Acen [will definitely need a warm season to wear that haha]

Rikku Scarf: Crocheting the scarf

Materials:

1 large spool of Cotton white yarn [be sure that it is cotton or wool, 100% polyester and 100% acrylic will NOT dye]
1 package Rit Golden Yellow dye
1 package Rit Tangerine dye
1 package Rit Scarlet dye
1 3 or 3.5 mm crochet hook
3 – 4 gallons of water
3 cups salt
1 tbsp laundry detergent
1 large trash bag


1. Ch 15, turn and sc in ea ch [do not skip 1st ch]
2. Rpt for remaining rows [you’ll have to keep trying it on to get the right length for yourself, just stop at your knee cap]

Fringe – Take a 5” board [I used a DVD case LOL] and wrap yarn around it about 60 times
1. Cut along one side so that you have 60 10” strands.
2. Fold two strands in half and grab the loop of those strands with the hook and pull through a single chain on the scarf end.
3. Pull the strand ends through the loop and tighten off – Do this for every chain [about 15]
4. Repeat for other side

*Gauge should be about 15 or 16 ch
*Use sc [single crochet]



Gradient Dyeing

I detailed this according to dyeing the Rikku scarf.. but for one color dyeing, proceed with steps 1 - 4, but instead of switching out colors, proceed to gradually work your way down the material.

*Notes:
+ Basically you’ll be following the instructions on the package but I’ve made minor adjustments.
Use only about 1 or 1.5 gallons of water instead of 3 like the package says. This will give the dye more strength and make it more vibrant UNLESS you have a huge swatch of fabric to dye [i'd estimate 3+ yards, then use 3 gallons BUT with 2 packs of dye]. Just make sure you're using enough water for the fabric to freely move in without crowding excessively.

+ When doing multiple colors, start with the LIGHTEST color then end with the DARKEST (i.e. Yellow to Red)

+ Gradient dyeing is also an eyeballing technique, for the most part, you can gauge the look of the gradient by holding it up and looking to see if there are any harsh transitions. If you DO have a harsh transition in a lighter area, take a separate dyeing bucket and fill it with hot water and a SMALL portion of the solution in your current bucket to dilute it and then proceed to dip-dye repair the harsh area.

+ Selection of fabrics/materials: 100% cotton, linen, rayon, wool, and silk are suggested for Rit dye. Fabrics that contain at least 60% of these fibers are still dyeable however they will not be as strong. My suggestion is to do the gradient dyeing 2 or 3 times, alot of work i know. So CHOOSE wisely!

+ 100% polyester or acrylic will NOT dye!! As stated above, BLENDS of these fibers with DYEABLE fibers will give you LIGHT results. Please heed my word on this, i've made this mistake before.

+ It is EXTREMELY important to PRETREAT and POST-TREAT your fabric. Pretreating your fabric will help remove any prior stains or debris. Post-treating involves THOROUGHLY rinsing out the dye after each color [start from warm water and gradually into cold water]. You MUST MUST MUST MUST *breathes* MUST MUST do this!! Especially if you have gradient involving light and dark colors, any traces of the darker dye will rub off onto the other colors!!! It is also important that once you have done this that you wash your material to help remove any last bit traces.

+ Remember: DON'T freak out at first that the color looks tremendously dark as you're dip dyeing. When you post treat and dry it, it'll dry to a lighter tone. If you ARE looking for that strong of a color, concentrate the solution with a higher dye to water ratio but work in smaller parts of predye being added to the bucket.


PRECAUTIONS:

+ Dyeing works well when you use HOT water, so please be careful when touching your fabric or working with the dye bucket.

+ GLOVES! Dye does stain your skin, granted it comes out EVENTUALLY, but i don't ever recommend dyeing without a pair for safetys sake. I usually use a pair of wooden disposable chopsticks to do any sort of agitation to the fabric in the dye bath.

+ When REMOVING dye using the Rit Color Remover, i noticed it has a very prevailing odor that can be quite sickening, please exercise precaution!

+ Staining - should you accidentally stain ceramic/tile, i noticed bleach works wonders to get it out, however obviously if you stain clothing or carpeting, you got yourself a nice blotch So wear careless clothing.


DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil 1 or 1.5 gallons of water [Does not have to be a rolling boil, just enough so that it is hot]. I usually just fill up a large stove pot with sink water and heat that up.

2. Prepare dye in presolution as directed on package. [I use a water bottle for this – just be sure to keep this separate from your actual dyeing bucket; all you basically do is pour the dye powder into the water bottle and then fill up the bottle with hot water, cap and shake to dissolve the powder, be careful when shaking if you don't tighten it off, you get a few splashes! lol]

3. Add 1 cup of salt and 1 tbsp laundry detergent to bucket.

4. Pour boiled water into bucket. *CAREFUL NOW!*

5. For the yellow, dump the entire yellow dye presolution and let the scarf soak for about 25 minutes with periodic agitation so that your fabric gets even contact with the dye. Remove from bucket and rinse THOROUGHLY.

*Repeat steps 1 - 4 for the orange and red dye. Be sure to completely rinse out the previous color from your bucket before starting the new one.

6. To get the nice gradient effect, only pour in about 1/3 or 1/4 of the orange dye presolution into the bucket and stir well. What this does is dilute the orange as you will see when you first go to dip it in.

7. *Note: the colors are about 1/3 each of the entire length, fold the scarf perfectly in half and hold the fringed side up with the other end to be dunked into the dye. Make a light mark where you want the gradient to begin, I used a pin [about 1/3 down from the fringe]

8. Dip the scarf to the farthest point you want the orange to start two or three times [take your time, don't rapidly dunk and yank it out LOL], afterwards dunk about 1 – 2” away from the last point you dunked, dipping about 2 or 3 times at the same spot. Proceed for a few more inches.

9. Lay out a large flat trash bag next to your bucket and CAREFULLY set the fabric on it making sure to keep the gradient end away from the lighter ends. Add another 1/3 or 1/4 of the dye presolution, stir, and continue from where you left off. Do not dunk from the very beginning of where you started!!!

10. Continue this process of adding the presolution in small parts while stirring and dip dyeing. Add the rest of the dye and finish the gradient.

11. Lay the scarf out on a trash bag to allow it to sit for about 25 minutes. Then rinse scarf out THOROUGHLY. **Avoid rinsing dye out near the yellow to avoid any staining)

12. Repeat for the scarlet dye from the bold end of the orange.

13. To check if you have washed your dye out during post treatment, the water should run clear or nearly clear [and i mean VERY CLOSE to clear]. Once this is verified, wash it normally and there you go!


Hope this helps
Related content
Comments: 199

Rikulover0312 [2011-06-07 05:08:19 +0000 UTC]

When using laundry detergent? do you mean liqiud or powder?

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Rikulover0312 [2011-06-08 02:23:42 +0000 UTC]

Either is fine I tend to use liquid so I don't accidentally get powder clumping lol

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Rainbowlov15 In reply to ??? [2011-05-30 00:05:57 +0000 UTC]

What kind of dye and colors did you use for yuna's summoner sleeves? And also is there any store i can buy it from? If not...where would you recommend i get it from?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

hiyoko-chan In reply to Rainbowlov15 [2011-05-30 19:06:52 +0000 UTC]

I use Rit dye and for the sleeves I used the Rose Pink not the fuschia because I wanted a more subtle pink like the CGI. You can get Rit dye almost anywhere grocery stores carry it in their shoe and sock sections and most craft stores will have a larger selection of colors.

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hikaruhime [2011-05-12 18:42:36 +0000 UTC]

Thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU! You are my hero!!! I hope my scarf turns out as nice as yours.

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hiyoko-chan In reply to hikaruhime [2011-05-13 22:14:35 +0000 UTC]

Hope it helps!

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GPGBs In reply to ??? [2011-04-08 22:51:30 +0000 UTC]

Ooooh I'm definitely going to try this!

Just for clearification, for this step

9. Lay out a large flat trash bag next to your bucket and CAREFULLY set the fabric on it making sure to keep the gradient end away from the lighter ends. Add another 1/3 or 1/4 of the dye presolution, stir, and continue from where you left off. Do not dunk from the very beginning of where you started!!!

"Do not dunk from the very beginning" means not from the first point of the gradient? Also, how much further from the starting point would you suggest dunking it?

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hiyoko-chan In reply to GPGBs [2011-04-09 00:44:45 +0000 UTC]

Yes, so if you worked 3" down from where you started, then start at the 3" point, then so on and so forth hope that helps!

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VoxVocisCruora [2011-03-21 06:43:13 +0000 UTC]

would this technique work for dying yarn as well as it would for fabric? I'm starting on a plushie of my one OC, and he has hair that goes from red to yellow at the tips, and i don't believe in any other hair other than yarn.

anyway, this is a very neat tutorial, i will have to try it with some random fabric stuff i have sitting around XD

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hiyoko-chan In reply to VoxVocisCruora [2011-03-21 19:12:33 +0000 UTC]

It will work for yarn as long as it is cotton/wool/dyeable fibers. The acrylic yarns won't dye :/ I tried it X/

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VoxVocisCruora In reply to hiyoko-chan [2011-03-21 19:19:01 +0000 UTC]

yay, thank you! i normally use cotton, so i should be set ^.^ thanks again!

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elflady-2001 [2011-03-20 06:46:38 +0000 UTC]

This is EXACTLY what I needed to gradient dye a fuchsia wrap for my daughter's Heisuke cosplay. Thank you so much!

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hiyoko-chan In reply to elflady-2001 [2011-03-21 01:23:01 +0000 UTC]

no prob! ^^

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Michete In reply to ??? [2011-03-12 04:22:27 +0000 UTC]

You are awesome! Thank you so much! This is so much fun I may be doing it to more stuff than my cosplay

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Isamiaella In reply to ??? [2011-02-03 20:34:23 +0000 UTC]

I was wondering. I have orange material that i bleached yellow and was wondering if i bought a orange dye and did this would it gradient dye ?

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Isamiaella [2011-02-04 01:09:20 +0000 UTC]

it should, as long as the material is dyeable and you removed as much bleach as you could

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Ice-and-Spice In reply to ??? [2011-01-11 06:07:37 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad I looked at this, I'm planning on remaking my Yuna sleeves tomorrow and needed this to figure out how to gradient dye them X3!

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motitapink [2011-01-06 03:33:25 +0000 UTC]

so usefull!!! thanks!!!

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Bluefire-Amaterasu [2011-01-02 22:38:09 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for the tutorial!
I will read everything tomorrow! Now it's to late where I live! ^^

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tatFB In reply to ??? [2010-12-09 17:18:01 +0000 UTC]

wow, that's a lot of trouble. but it does seem to work nicely. thanks for the tips!!

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hiyoko-chan In reply to tatFB [2010-12-10 03:32:08 +0000 UTC]

it's actually much easier when you do it lol I can usually do a full gradient dye in like 30 mins lol

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tatFB In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-12-11 02:57:33 +0000 UTC]

yeah, I guess the details make it seem more complicated... But they're very important

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pepsicolatier [2010-12-02 00:39:54 +0000 UTC]

YOUUUUU

you have made my life 9999x easier.
I love you.
kthnxbai.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

benihme-chan In reply to ??? [2010-09-09 15:46:05 +0000 UTC]

i'll be needing this in the future! thanks!

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ViejoBabasama [2010-07-30 15:29:23 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! My daughter has a dress she wanted to gradient dye from red to black.

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hiyoko-chan In reply to ViejoBabasama [2010-07-31 00:53:36 +0000 UTC]

ooo sounds pretty! Just make sure you check what type of fabric of it is before you start

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ViejoBabasama In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-07-31 18:37:02 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, I will.
Hugs!

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x-MirRor-MemOriEs-x In reply to ??? [2010-07-26 18:15:55 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! Can't wait to use this, very clear directions and very good tutorial

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hiyoko-chan In reply to x-MirRor-MemOriEs-x [2010-07-26 23:44:27 +0000 UTC]

thanks! hope it works out for ya!

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Darling-Poe [2010-06-27 02:36:42 +0000 UTC]

Very informative! Thanks for sharing

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Darling-Poe [2010-06-27 14:33:31 +0000 UTC]

no prob!

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thepeacefish In reply to ??? [2010-06-19 02:49:22 +0000 UTC]

I used this technique on some sheets and it worked great! They didn't come out as dark as I expected but it was a lot of fabric. Awesome scarf, thought it was photoshopped at first the colors are so vibrant!

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hiyoko-chan In reply to thepeacefish [2010-06-19 15:33:49 +0000 UTC]

awesome! yeah with alot of fabric/darker colors you'll need 2 or 3 dye packets to make them come out strong that's what I had to do when I gradient dyed a black scarf lol

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duastre In reply to ??? [2010-06-14 04:18:35 +0000 UTC]

What tips would you have for dying many colors? I'm going to be dying white dupioni silk for the wrap here: [link]

Do you have any tips for doing the rainbow that would be different from the Rikku scarf instructions? Thanks!

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hiyoko-chan In reply to duastre [2010-06-15 09:47:30 +0000 UTC]

It should'nt be much any different just start with dyeing it yellow first than work your way to the red on one end then to the purple on the other side

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duastre In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-06-15 18:36:00 +0000 UTC]

Okay! I was pretty sure it'd be the same but I wanted to double check Thanks!

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Fish-Princess In reply to ??? [2010-05-31 01:50:36 +0000 UTC]

This is TOTALLY epic thank you :'D

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Fish-Princess [2010-05-31 03:13:21 +0000 UTC]

hope it helps!

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Fish-Princess In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-05-31 03:15:21 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!! I hope it will too, I have wanted to cosplay Lenne for a long while; and I will also make use of this for future cosplay's. I am deeply in your debt :'D

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kaedralynn In reply to ??? [2010-05-29 20:14:59 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for a wonderful tutorial! I'm making this [link] costume from Phantom of the Opera and I'm very nervous about dyeing this 1 yard of expensive dupioni silk... I'm trying to gather as much info about dyeing gradients as possible, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon this!

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RydiaValentine In reply to ??? [2010-05-29 12:56:06 +0000 UTC]

Great tutorial! My aunt is making a scarf for me. I won't use it for cosplay, but I would like to dye it as Rikku's and just wearing it outside lol.

Do you know if this tutorial (the dye part) works for plush fabric (I think it was spelled with other word, sorry for my bad English lol)? I live in the middle of nowhere and they don't have brown plush in fabric stores here T_T.

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hiyoko-chan In reply to RydiaValentine [2010-05-29 13:00:54 +0000 UTC]

it just depends on what the plush fabric is made of right now i'm testing out the new iDye Poly so if it lives up to its name, you can do either one or a combo of both to dye it

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RydiaValentine In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-05-29 14:21:23 +0000 UTC]

Well thank you for the tip

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hobosaur [2010-04-22 03:56:25 +0000 UTC]

super detailed and veryyy helpful
i'm dyeing my ff13 oerba dia vanille skirt and thankfully it's the same colours used for rikku. thank youuuuu!

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hiyoko-chan In reply to hobosaur [2010-04-22 13:40:21 +0000 UTC]

no prob! hope it helps!

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Hanamii [2010-04-18 19:57:17 +0000 UTC]

Hello, I have a few questions about making the Rikku scarf... I just got back from the fabric store and somehow they didn't have any white cotton yarn... So I got an off-white color Wool yarn, just wanted to make sure this will still dye before I start making the scarf. Also, there were 2 different types of the Rit dye... Here is a photo of the things I bought: [link]
Is that the right kind of dye?
Thanks in advance.
Emily

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Hanamii [2010-04-19 01:10:16 +0000 UTC]

Yep that's exactly the kind that I used for my Rikku scarves

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Hanamii In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-04-19 04:44:08 +0000 UTC]

Great thanks! Sorry, one more question lol... When dying, doing yellow first, do you dye the entire scarf yellow? Then re-dye over the yellow with orange, and over the orange with red? Or is it done in sections? Thanks

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hiyoko-chan In reply to Hanamii [2010-04-19 16:22:14 +0000 UTC]

yep! it actually helps the transitions because its going from yellow straight into orange rather than dyeing straight from white to orange, etc..

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Hanamii In reply to hiyoko-chan [2010-04-19 17:53:18 +0000 UTC]

ok great, thanks for all the help ^-^

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