How to Kool-Aid Dye Silk Scarves
Pretty much the only thing worth doing with powdered drink mix
by Lynn Siprelle
by Lynn Siprelle
love KoolAid. Good grief, not to drink! To dye stuff with!
KoolAid is a ready-made acid dye, suitable for any protein fiber. That means silk, soy silk and wool, fiber fans. Usually I dye wool with it, or its close relative, Easter egg dye.
This yarn is a combination of odd bits of fibers I had including wool and soy silk, mostly dyed with Easter egg dye left over from egg dyeing in 2006.
So when our friend Karen had a birthday recently, Anhata decided it would be fun if we KoolAid-dyed her a silk scarf in her favorite colors, Berry Blue, Grape and Lemon-Lime--er, blue, purple and green. 
As long as we were at it, we dyed scarves for ourselves and for another friend who's having a birthday soon.
First we got the scarves good and wet. Then we fan-folded them. Some of them we then rubber-banded, like tie-dye. We put the wet scarves inside zip-top freezer bags and then took the straight KoolAid powder (no sugar!) and sprinkled it over the scarves where we wanted the color. We flipped the scarves over and did the back sides, then sorta smooshed the silk in the bag to work the color into the layers.
(That smell! Even if you don't drink the stuff any more, it really takes you back. "I'm having a grade-school flashback!" said Anhata. Grade school--heck, I craved Black Cherry KoolAid in the worst way when I was pregnant with Josie, with hardly any sugar in it. Yes, I admit it, I drank it. Pregnant womens is crazy. But I digress.)
Then we took the bags and popped them one at a time into the microwave on high for two minutes. We watched to make sure the bags didn't pop from the steam.
Then we left them overnight until they cooled. When I rinsed out the two pieces I had, the dye had completely struck; the water left in the silk was clear, and no amount of rinsing brought any of the dye out of the fabric. (That's what you want.) The results:
Whaddaya think?
This is a fun project with kids. The dye is non-toxic, and it's quick--almost instant-gratification. You can get silk scarf blanks at Dharma Trading. Remember: This only works on fibers like silk and wool. It won't work on cotton, linen or polyesters of any kind.
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Comments
So beautiful!!!!!
This does not help, in any way, to quell my mad desire to start raising sheep! Thanks a LOT, Lynn!
gotta try it
As I pile up ideas for homeschooling with my little tactile artisan, this is a great one! We will have to try it this summer!
Shaun
www.redseahomeschool.wordpress.com
OMG!!! Im a belly dance
OMG!!! Im a belly dance teacher for at- risk teens, and have been looking at dying veils for the girls. This makes things SO much easier, and cheaper, and neater, and I could keep going with the 'er's. THANK YOU SO MUCH for putting this up!!!
And you're right, pregnant womens is crazy! I used to sprinkle the cherry and lemonade with sugar on vanilla ice cream. I'm hoping its not genetic.
you're very welcome!
How cool that you teach kids like that! If you do this, come back and post a picture.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
Another way to do it
We are terrified the microwave will smell of burning plastic so we read all this and decided to try something different, and it worked great! We painted on silk scarves with all the different colors of Koolaid. Then we set them on white paper towels on the ironing board and set the dye with heat with the iron. Paper towels between the iron and the wet scarf works best. Then we dunked the whole scarf in a white bowl with cold water to make sure the colors set. If we saw a color in the water we ironed again pressing the color that ran extra long. The colors of the koolaid with a little water were stronger but the purple looked grey until we were done. The pink lemonade and blue were beautiful together and the different shades of green with the Lemon-Lime and the Apple were amazing. We didn't have to stick to tye-dye this way and got rainbows, butterflies and flowers as well as mixing colors we wanted to. We used folded paper towels as brushes for the large areas and paint brushes for the details. The iron worked well but took some time. Start early and keep going until you run out of things to dye or dye itself because it's addictive! (And you don't want to waste the dye!)
I'm thinking I'll try this
I'm thinking I'll try this and steam set in the microwave in those bags made to steam in the microwave!
Kool-Ade is on sale this week, too!! Woo-hoo!
Amazing!
I love this idea and want to try it out. Do you have any advice regarding the amount of kool-aid I should buy? I would appreciate any starting point, such as a suggested amount per yard of fabric...
don't dye yards of fabric :)
Kool-Aid is way too expensive (believe it or not) to do more than a small project. We used two or three packets of Kool-Aid per scarf. If you're interested in doing serious dyeing, acquire some Procion dyes from Dharma Trading Company. As long as you wear an N95 mask (simple paper filter), you're safe as houses.
This is really a fun project with kids
Yeah,This is really a fun project with kids.
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