Tie-Dye Basket Weaving

Posted by Nancy Jacobs on November 2nd, 2009 at 04:58pm

Dear FaveCraft Friends,

I’m so happy to say that I will be blogging over here monthly and sharing information with you regarding the wonderful craft of basket weaving.  Today I want to share with you how I, as a basket weaver, used the Tulip Tie-Dye kit.

I used the kit to dye my reed!

The kit comes with 12 delicious colors. That’s great, because my box of mason jars comes 12 to a box as well. That means one color per jar and I won’t have to wash out and re-use the jars for additional colors.

I mixed up the first color according to the directions, color plus 4 oz of water (1/2 cup). I dipped the end of some reed in it and it took the color instantly. The directions said that the color could be lightened by adding more water. I decided to go to one cup of water. The reed still took the color almost instantly and with the same intensity as the first dip test. I decided to stick with one cup of water for each package of color.
Into each jar I put the dye, 1 cup water and 1 1/2 oz to 2 oz of reed. (I weighed it just to be sure.) Then I shook up each jar and placed it on its side to help the reed get maximum coverage in the dye bath. I let the reed stay in the dye bath about 1 hour and would turn and shake the jars about every 10 minutes.

Did I tell you I did all this outside on my back patio wearing old clothes? Nancy’s Tip: Even under optimum conditions NEVER, I repeat NEVER dye read in the house, or while wearing nice clothing on. The kit comes with rubber gloves as well as a plastic tarp. I used those too while working outside. I do think dying fabric could be less messy because it wouldn’t flip and fling little droplets of dye the way reed can.

When the kit came, the colors on the package just shouted, “It’s party time!” to me. That said, I decided to design and weave little party baskets to hold candy or small favors.

For those of you who have been too timid to try dying your own reed, this is a good way to try dying just a small bit at a time. It really was just one-step.
This month at FaveCrafts, I have posted the pattern for this fun little Party Favor Basket.

If you are in need of additional basket weaving information, be sure to visit my blog at www.basketmasterweavings.blogspot.com for more tips and techniques.

Happy Weaving,

Nancy

Tags: basket, dye, party, tie-dye, weaving

Under Uncategorized Tags: basket, dye, party, tie-dye, weaving