This project is especially nostalgic for me because I learned this technique from my mom in high school art class (yes, my mom was my art teacher for a year!).
Have you heard of wax-resist dyeing? Sometimes this is also called batik. This was my absolute favorite medium during high school. It’s super easy and there are endless possibilities to customize the craft. Here are the basics:
You’ll need cotton fabric, wax resist sticks (or crayons!) and Rit dye.
First, draw something on your fabric. You can do color or use un-colored wax sticks like I did. I first learned using colorful crayons. That was cool because I would cover almost the whole fabric with designs and then dye it one color (usually black).
For a different effect, melt the tip of your crayon with a candle before drawing with it. If you choose to use the candle just be sure to use newspaper under your fabric.
I LOVE playing with fabric dye! Just follow the instructions on the dye bottle. I like liquid Rit dye because it’s easy to save the leftovers for future projects.
When you are done, rinse the fabric and hand wash it with soap in the sink. Hang it up to dry. After it is completely dry if your fabric seems to have an excess of wax you can remove it by placing the fabric between two pieces of newspaper and ironing it.
If you are curious about the words scarf it’s some song lyrics from a movie that Jeremy and I love, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.
I had a lot of fun working on this batik project! I was secretly testing the project for a patterned dip dye curtain idea that I want to try. What about you? Do you have ideas for this technique? xo. Elsie
These are beautiful! Can you do them with any fabric (ie: a fine woven muslin) and is their an “enviro” dye that you can use or is dye just dye? I am a total amateur!
Muchas gracias por encerar mis ideas! Es un blog grandioso muy exquisito! Mis mejores deseos para tu trabajo.
LOVE!
so amazing! I’ve been looking at wax resist dying all day. I was getting quite overwhelmed by it all. You have totally cleared my mind and I can’t wait to give it a try.
Great post! Thanks! 😀 😀
Dom.
Craftedblog.com
This is so cool!
Batik is awesome!
To answer Ryan’s question – you can use your washer! Fill it with hot water, then carefully add the dye to the water. Lastly, put the duvet cover in. Let it go through a nice, long wash cycle with an extra rinse. Then, do ta again – until the water in the washer is clear! Once you’ve taken it out to dry, see if there is any dye residue on any if e washe parts, wipe those off, and o one more cycle with the washer empty.
Whew. It’s easy, promise. 🙂
hey there-
my friend and I tried this over the weekend and ours did not turn out. We followed your instructions but I am wondering if maybe we just used too cheap of crayons. Would that matter? We used RoseArt white crayons. You could see our pattern and writing while it was in the dye but when it was all said and done, all we ended up with was some colorfully dyed fabric.
any suggestions?
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This is amazing! You could even try reversing it by writing the wax bit on a coloured scarf and bleaching the colour out… Don’t know if it will be as pretty but I guess it’s worth a shot :3 Great work 😀
This idea is just amazing!
Wanna try this to!
xoxo
Sophie- they’re from Hobby Lobby!
Hello, could you tell me your source for your plain white scarves, please? I have so many ideas and I need a canvas! 🙂 Thanks for your two recent scarf posts.
Doralyn,
I would not machine wash these scarves. I’m sure you “could” but it’s not worth the risk to your other clothing. I hand wash a lot of stuff in my home and it’s not that hard. I just keep it in a separate pile and wash them in the sink with laundry soap when the pile gets big.
Hope that helps!
could this ever be machine washed? it would be cool for quilting.
Lightbulb! I have a bunch of the clear wax crayons that come in Easter egg dye kits – bet they’re the same thing….
this is so lovely! i’m excited to try it myself. I was so excited I had to share it on my blog (with credit to you all, of course) : http://ahappystitch.com/2013/03/11/march-happy-happenings/
Do colored crayons leave colored spaces?
I love batik fabrics, and I’d love to make some of my own. Thanks for sharing!
when we wash it what soap should we use. ive done this before but the soap left a kind of stain
Love this idea and so want to make some hand towels with this method!