Shibori Indigo Dye Class
Molly and I took a Shibori Indigo Dye class this past Saturday. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The class was through the Marine Mills Folk School at Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, which is a little over an hour away. If you are a local reading this post, I highly encourage you to sign up for one of the classes. Our instructor, Cara, did a great job of taking us through the process.
Part of the fun was prepping the fabric by folding or scrunching it, then securing it with rubberbands. In this photo, Molly is scrunching up parts of the fabric, then banding it to hold its shape.
A couple of our pieces ready to dye. On the left is a cotton towel; on the right, a silk scarf.
Fabric bundles soaking up the indigo dye. It’s a bit magical. When the fabric bundle is pulled from the dye, it is a yellow-green color. When the bands are removed and the fabric is opened up and meets the air, the dye turns blue.
We each dyed two towels, about 34″ square each. The towel on the right was folded, then secured with a circle block and rubberhands. The next towel was folded and secured with square blocks and rubberbands. The third towel was made by pulling up sections of the towel, then securing it with rubberbands. The last was made by scrunching it up (you saw this in the photo above).
Each of us dyed a silk scarf. Mine is on the left (the scrunched up bundle in the photo above), and Molly’s is on the right. The scarves measure approximately 10″ x 60″.
Molly also dyed three little onesies – aren’t they cute?! Our favorite is the one in the center.
We had so much fun; it was a great way to spend a Saturday. Have you ever taken a Shibori Indigo Dye class? I’d love to hear about it!
Wendy
Positivity Quilt Top
23 Comments
marissthequilter
Oooh, you both got lovely results from the Shibori dyeing class. Glad you had fun and enjoyed the magic of transforming cloth.
Laura
What a productive and fun day you had! 🙂
karenfae
looks like a fun class to take
Helen
Whenever I’ve used Rit Dye for something, I’m always fascinated and amazed that it actually works. But, I’ve never done anything “fancy” like these! What fun!
Barbara J Stanbro
How fun is that? I’ve wanted to take a class like that, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself. Your stuff turned out cute!
The Joyful Quilter
Awesome results, Wendy! My quilt bee has done several Dye Frenzy days. We’ve all used some Shibori techniques, but only a few of us have actually taken a class on the subject.
Tracie
Wow, you accomplished a lot in the class and the projects are so cool. The onesies are great! I bet it was extra fun to take the class together.
Vicki in MN
Everything is so cute!! Loved reading a bit about the process.
Diann@ Little Penguin Quilts
That sounds like such a fun thing for you and Molly to do together! Love the results, too!
The Morning Latte
They all turned out so fun! I esp love the circle designs. Great way to spend the day together!
quiltinggail
Looks like a fun and productive class! 🙂
laura bruno lilly
Gorgeous! There’s a certain allure to a true Indigo dyed cloth, isn’t there?
The local museum here held a one day free workshop on Shibori – they grow their own indigo plants and everything (this is South Carolina, so it’s very ‘native’ to their culture). I enjoyed the actual dying and revealing. Luckily, offered another freebie class a few weeks later for Indigo dying with paste resist (these ‘classes’ were a first for adults in our town, so I did indeed luck out to be one of 10 who got to attend – I’m a quick signer-upper!).
My quilting style tends towards random happiness, even ‘controlled randomness’ But usually not follow the old-style block pattern type. This use of a paste resist and stencil (all made from traditional methods and materials) came out better IMHO than the tye-dye looking Shibori method. I was very surprised – the stencil I used was an intricate rose – and is my favorite piece from my 2 freebie workshops on Indigo dying back in May/June.
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
That does sound like a great class. I’ve never done this but would definitely like to give it a try one day!
Lola
My daughters did the Shibori Indigo Dyeing last week. My clothesline was so pretty!!
I wanted to send photos, couldn’t figure out how. If I had you e-mail, would be happy to share them.
shandaken6
Yes! I’ve taken a Shibori Indigo Dyeing workshop. Outdoors, early Autumn on the grounds of a small, local art museum. Fun! Not only did we do scarves but yardage. I’ve used quite a bit of the yardage as background in some art quilts. A wonderful experience!
Needle and Foot
That looks really fun. Are you nervous to wash any of these projects? Does the dye set reliably?
Carol Andrews
Wendy you and Molly must have had so much fun at the workshop. Due to Covid we had to cancel our Shibouri classes at out Guild (and the Natural Dies, and, and ….) but we are planning on making an indigo vat this fall once the gardens are done. I’m pretty excited about it! 😉
My Sewful Retirement
The Shibori class sounds like fun ! I bought a fat quarter bundle of Moda Shibori last year and started making blocks last week, I really enjoyed the feel of the fabric and the subtle color changes.
lapaylor
whoa! looks so good
Kathleen McCormick
This makes me smile so much – you having fun with your daughter. Always loved the blue of this dying process. Your end results are quite fun – congrats on a success workshop.
Katy Sweigart
These are lovely! I want to try this someday.
Kathy Swallows
Looks like lots of fun. All of your dyed goods look fantastic. Those onesies are really cute.
Cindy Pieters
Sounds like a great class and that you both enjoyed it!