I partnered with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint to experiment with using their paint to dye fabric. I must say I am quite pleased with the results and learned a lot. MMSMP is the paint I use the most. One of the reasons for this is the colors, they are so pretty. I generally use neutrals for my projects, but this project was colorful, and fun. I used 5 different MMSMP colors: Tricycle, Apron Strings, Typewriter, Flow Blue, and Arabesque. I was surprised which color was my favorite, more on that later.
If this is a project you would like to do here is the process I followed and what I learned:
Supplies
-Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint
-Natural fiber (cotton or linen) light colored fabric
-Salt
-Bowl
-Spoons/forks/tongs
-Old towel or drop cloth
-Gloves
-Hot water
1- First get your set up ready for a mess, with towel or drop cloth in place. Use a bowl that you are okay with getting ruined to place 2 cups of hot water and dissolve 1 tablespoon salt into it. Then add 1/2 cup of MMSMP paint powder to the water/ salt mixture and stir for about two minutes to get it all mixed into liquid form.
2- Make sure your fabric is clean and completely wet. So run your fabric through the washer. DO NOT PUT IN DRYER. Take wet fabric and immerse in paint mixture.
3- Let the fabric sit for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4- Remove fabric and rinse with water.
5- Let air dry, then iron fabric to help set the dye. Make sure your iron is clean before ironing something else : ).
6- Lastly use a washer and dryer to wash (using a little bit of detergent) and dry the fabric.
Lessons Learned
– All the colors I used were successful in dying fabric except Arabesque. The colors were lighter variations of the paint, but they turned out nicely. I believe Arabesque was just too light, it is such a lovely color, but it quickly washed out the fabric using my process.
Apron Strings
Tricycle
Flow Blue
Typewriter
Arabesque
-I used a couple of different kind of natural fabrics and mostly liked the variations on how they absorbed the dye. I used stark white linen, natural color antique hemp linen, and the affordable option of a modern day oatmeal cotton drop cloth. All were a little different, I liked them all.
drop cloth – hemp linen – white linen
-I wanted to get a series of 3-4 pieces of fabric that were different shades of the same fabric, an ombre look. I had some success with two shades, but after that I wasn’t able to acheive a variation in the shade doing what I tried. First I tried four pieces of fabric and put them all in and removed one at a time after 10 minute intervals, so the first piece was in for 10 minutes and the last for 40 minutes. I really didn’t see that much variation in the color after the fabric was washed. Then I tried 3 minute intervals with Typewriter, that was a bit better because the first piece of fabric I removed ended up with just a tint of the dye that it contrasted well with the remaining pieces. However I didn’t see enough of a contrast in the remaining pieces and I even tried adding more paint powder without luck. I am not saying this can’t be done, I am sure that one of you has the answer to achieving this and please let me know when you do.
-I did not see much difference in leaving fabric in the dye for 10 minutes versus 1.5 hours.
-This recipe of 2 cups of water was suitable for about 1-2 feet square piece of fabric.
– I learned I enjoyed this project and will be doing it again! The possiblities on what to use the dyed fabric for is endless.
-Finally I learned I love, love the color Apron Strings. I am generally a blue/green/neutral girl. But the outcome of these pieces of fabric with the salamon color made me so happy, it was my favorite!
Have fun, and let me know if you have success!!
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