Have you ever envied all the luscious colors and textures artists get when they dye their own fabric? Well envy no more– You should try your hand at dyeing! This introduction to dyeing will show you how to create tints of the three primary colors: fuscia, yellow and turquoise. Not only is this an easy way to get started dyeing, you’ll be creating lots of different values of three hues, which come in handy when you’re trying to create movement and contrast in whatever you’re creating.

What you’ll need to dye all 3 Gradations:

• 4.5 yards PFD Fabric, cut into “fat quarters” (Sew,Mama,Sew! has a nice selection of Organic PFD Fabric , the poplin would be a great fabric to start with, not too thin, not too thick, with a nice high thread count.)
• ½ cup Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate; It’s often called “pH Up” and is available in the pool supply aisle of big box stores, your local pool supply store or at online dye suppliers, where it may be called Dye Activator… Three names, same chemical!)
• Three primary colors of Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes. Available from:
  - Dharma Trading for West coast folk
  - PROchem for East coast folk
  - These dyes may also be available locally at craft supply stores, but these do have a shelf life and need to be stored properly (heat and moisture destroy their reactivity) so “buyer beware.”
  - For this tutorial I used these dyes:

  

• 18 small-ish plastic containers (I used 3-cup cheap generic “Tupperware” and recycled yogurt tubs)
• 1 larger bucket
• 3 plastic cups and spoons
• 3 containers for dye (I use recycled water bottles with “sports squirter tops”)
• 1 measuring cup you’ll no longer use for food
• A small graduated cylinder, syringe or a teaspoo...