Dyeing Playsilks with Vinegar (stovetop method)

Today for our craft, we dyed playsilks.  This has been on my to-do list since this summer when I got the playsilks from Dharma Trading.

Last time we did this, I didn't post about it and didn't write down what I did.  I remember thinking it was really easy (particularly since before that we dyed a few with natural plant dyes) and I found the directions easily online, so there was no need to bother.

But I've had these silks waiting to get dyed, and several of our current ones are torn, and I wasn't sure which tutorial to follow.  I remembered doing something on the stove, but couldn't remember what.

I found this tutorial which has most of what I needed.  I still don't remember exactly what we did last time, but this time, I pretty much followed the directions in the linked tutorial.  The only significant difference is that I brought the colored water to an almost boil in an old pot on the stove before adding the silks and then we swished it around until we liked the color.  I used about 15 drops of color for each bath and used the least amount of water necessary to fully cover the playsilk and have a little room for swishing (we're super water conscious over here!!)  To save water, I also dyed purple after blue using the blue water bath as a start and dyed the orange after red using the red water bath as a start.

We used the 30"x30" Habotai silks from Dharma.  I like that size the best - the kids greatly prefer them to the 22" square ones.

My red isn't so red - I guess I needed more dye for that one, or more time in the bath.  If there are any complaints, we can always put it back in for more dye later...

Yoav dyeing playsilk

Food dye colored playsilks