Did you know you can can dye, print and paint synthetic fabrics with transfer dyes? Well, you can and this morning I thought I would put together this tutorial on how to use a stencil technique to print on synthetic fabrics. These dyes are also known as disperse dyes and they are not difficult to use. You simply follow the instructions to dye fabric.
What many people don’t know is that you can use these dyes in printing techniques. For instance you can paint these dyes on paper and use a hot iron to transfer them to synthetic fabrics. This means you can make paper stencils easily and build up patterns and images on fabric.
First mix the dyes in cold water. They do not disolve easily so stir them well. I use quite a heavy concentrate of one to two teaspoons of powder to a cup of water. Mix up a selection of colours.
Paint and print on paper. (I recycle and use the back of computer print outs) You can draw pictures, symbols, geometrical motifs or what ever pops into your head. Or create lots of papers that are simply drips and dribbles on the paper.
If you place a sponge soaked with dye in a shallow tray you can use this as a stamp pad and print images on paper. You can use cotton reels, carved vegetables, bits of net, bottle corks, card board rings, and anything you can think of to create a print.
Paint, print, dribble, splatter and have fun on a selection of pages and let them dry.
This is an image of the paper print and the fabric after transfering.
Make yourself a few stencils. I desinged these using Adobe lllustrator but all you need is simple shape that can act as a paper stencil.
I am using unpainted paper to make my stencils as I like working with subjects in the negative, but you can make the stencils out of dyed paper too. Place them face down (if they are dyed paper) on synthetic fabric
Cover the stencils with a sheet of painted paper. Make sure you place the sheet dye side down. With the iron set on hot, iron the paper for between 20 and 30 seconds. Move the iron carefully, as you do not want to shift the stencil underneath, otherwise you will get an impression of darker dye where the steam holes of the iron was. Lift the edge of the paper to see if it is tranferring. Keep ironing until the image has transfered
When you lift the paper off you have a dyed fabric.
Remove the stencil and you can see the design clearly.
You build up quite large areas on piece of fabric by using this method. You can also build up imagery of multiple layers of colour, by using multiple papers. Transfer one colour, remove the sheet and then do another and so on until deep interesting textures and colours are built up.
You can use all sorts of things as stencils such as paper doylies and lace.
The image above is the painted paper after it has been used. The paper doyley has acted as a stencil. Below is a close up of the print on the fabric.
Remember that these dyes are desinged to be used on synthetic fabrics. I obtain my transfer dyes from Kraftkolour. I am not associated with this business in any way. I am just a happy customer of a decade or so.
Hope you enjoy this technique. If you do, or think it is interesting, spread the word on your blog or if you are on a discussion list let them know, as I have not found this technique documented online or even in books! But it is simple as pie and a lot of fun.