There are times when we want to dye fabric and hair in colors other than the conventional.  Since I love to play with color, it is one of my passions, I thought I would share with you some of the mixes that I have come up with, in additon to my flesh recipes.

Remember, this experiment is done with powdered dye, and I am not sure of the measurements when using any other type of dye, liquid or powder.  The exact measurements are left to the eye, too.  If you are dyeing a length of fabric, you will need much more dye than if you are dyeing a hank of hair. I mix my dye in a large glass jar, gallon size,before I pour it into my machine, or into a baggie for hair.

I dye my fabric in lenghts of 1/4 to 1/2  yd. swatches in my washer with the setting on low.  I dye doesuede. I dye mohair in a large plastic baggie. These mixtures would probably be much darker and more vivid with cottons or other non polyester fabrics, so be careful and test the strength and dyeing time. (which I eyeball too)  I dye fabric like I cook, watching the pot and checking the progress of the ingredients.

Flesh 1 ...use 1 tablespoon tan and one tablespoon peach

Flesh 2 ...use 1 tablespoon tan  and one tablespoon rose pink

Flesh 3 ...use 1 tablespoon tan and one tablespoon tangerine

Flesh 4... use 1 tablespoon tan and one tablespoon tan, eight tablespoons                                         golden yellow, and one tablespoon rose pink

Each of these combinations will give you a good flesh in varying shades of caucasian.  You can make the concentrate stronger as you develop your dyeing skills, and play with fabric.  It is a good idea, since doe suede is so precious to experiment with another white or cream polyester fabric before you add the doe suede.  Remember it takes a lot longer for doe suede to dye than most fabrics I have tried to dye.  You might even want to cut some squares of the doe suede and drop them into some of the solution in a zip loc bag,  and time the process.  This will not be wasted fabric, if you cut the squares the size you need to make doll pin heads with!

 

These dye solutions are concentrated. and will make 3 gallons of dye, about as much as you would need to dye a yard or so of  fabric. They store well and can be mixed in advance.

The following color combinations are not as precisely measured as the flesh tones.  I experimented with mixing these colors for hair and my other than flesh bodies.  I cut the cost by sharing the dye with a couple friends at the doll meeting.  We each bought differnt colors of dye, brought them to the meeting and took dye home in baby food and small pickle jars.  Carefully labled of course, as the to the colors inside the jars.  It was a fun project.

I am using a tablespoon of dye as a part.  I mixed the dyes in  gallon jars of hot water, about 6 cups. You can then adjust the density of the color by eyeballing the mixture.  Remember that the dyes will be less vivid on doe suede.

I got a rich caramel color by mixing 10 parts golden yellow to 1 part cocoa brown.

I got a camel color by mixing 4 parts yellow, not golden yellow , with one part cocoa brown.

I got a shrimpy color by mixing 4 parts rose pink with 1 part tangerine.

( These colors can be used as exaggerated flesh tones too!)

I got a great violet color, almost the true violet, by mixing 4 parts purple to 1 part fuchsia.

I got a great teal color by mixing 5 parts royal blue and 1 part Kelly green.

I got a great turquoise by mixing 2 parts royal blue with one two parts Kelly green.

Then I  got an aquamarine by mixing three parts of the teal with a drop of the kelly green.

So you see you can run the gamut of shades by adding more water ! 

Don't be afraid to experiment.  I like to experiment.  I especially like to experiment with the reds and scarlets for hair.  By mixing little dabs of ,yellow, pink and tan, I can create a whole specturm of red hair!  I even created some great purples by adding little dabs of blue, and some colors I don't even know how to describe by addin someof the left over greens in small amounts to the red.  All great hair colors. 

My latest experiment was to get a pale blue.  Nothing worked until I found a bottle of liquid rit dye..." Evening Blue"  I just added one tablespoon to hot water and soaked my fabric for about an hour.  So you can see sometimes no mixing is required, just add the color to hot water to get a paler shade, it just took sometime to find the right shade.  Denim was too dark , too much blackish gray when not diluted properly, a dingy color.  Wht on earth did I need pale blue for?

Well, I am brainstorming here, and if it works, you will see it for the first time in New Mexico next year!

Save all the dye baths if you want.  I usually save at least a baby food jar of the dye.  Just to see what I can get if I dump a little of this and a little of that together. 

 

Take a play day and whip up some dyes.  One good rule to remember is that the most prominent color you will get if you add all the left overs to the batch is a dark, grayish, greenish, brownish batch of hair dye that will get you a most definitely unique hair color.  So mix one or two colors at a time until you get daring enough not to care what color it is because you will use it anyway!

You can overdye the flesh tones with more or less tan if you do not like the tone, or just want to see what would happen, and you can add a cocoa brown to most of them to get a soft ruddy complexion...I did this for Esmerelda.  I got a wonderful flesh tone.  I have also overdyed an avocado doe suede with dark brown for a wonderful ethnic tone.  Don't be afraid of dye.  Dye is your friend, and a fun one to play with.

This page was last updated on: April 2, 2010