Tie Dye Kilts

[Riverkilt]

Okay, tax refund showed up and I sprang for that last, or near last natural/white workman's on the UK scratch and dent list. Gotta have it chopped but still a fair deal. Always sorta wanted one, kinda, maybe...to dye.

Now looking to have a hippie friend up the road in Utah tie dye it for me...only one I've seen is the one in the gallery on the UK website and that's the old style with the pleats in front.

Anyone have a tie dye kilt...done it, had it done, have any tips or hints or warnings.

Thanks,

Ron

[Jewddha]

It's going to be a b***h. I haven't tie dyed a kilt, but if supervising about 80 kids doing it (and myself, of course) tells me anything... beware. I would look at dye patterns for ruffled skirts, or anything full of winrkles, crinkles, folds, bends or anything similar. Reason being you want to be aware of what will happen to the inner pleats. Apron will be a breeze, since it's basically a flat piece, can work any sort of pattern in (single/multiple spirals, concentric circles, etc...), but the pleats will be tricky. Again, make sure you get the dye well into every fold and cranny (triply aware of pleats). Oh, and see what research you can get done on the fabric and how the dye will react!!!

I will hit up all my artsy craftsy friends for information on good dye brands, patterns, websites.

Best of luck!

[cormacmacguardhe]

Shades of the Grateful Dead, what will they think of next.
Actually it sounds pretty cool to me. As my old hippie friends would say psychf^&*#indelic. Want to see pics as soon as possible.

[Jewddha]

Ron, I have had recommendations on both of these sites. I haven't looked through them, so this is purely by word of mouth. Hope they help.

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml

http://dharmatrading.com/

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Ron, breaking new ground in the hinterlands again I see? Good luck with it. I look forward to the finished product.

[Jewddha]

One of my friends sent me this e-mail

The main thing with doing heavyweight dying is that you sometimes have to adjust the strength of your mordant, and do other pretreating to make the fibres ready to accept dye. These things can get to be expensive sometimes, but its more important, from what I understand, to spend a bit more money on the chemical stuff, because once the fabric is ready to be dyed, you can use a lower grade dye, and the colour will be okay. Type of dye you want to use also depends on what colour you are trying to achieve. Higher grade things can be finicky, and I know with paints, certain brands have certain colours that are really strong and good, and others that aren't. Darker colours, especially, are hardest to get, and for a heavy weight fabric especially, can require quite a bit of chemical treating.

Her other point was just to drop into your local crafts shop and ask. If they don't know specifically, they might have a good reference for you.

[GlassMan]

Wouldn't it be easier to tye-dye the cloth first and then sew it into a kilt? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the dye getting into the pleats at all, it would already be dyed before pleating.

This is more out of intellectual curiousity than anything else since personally I like wearing traditional tartan kilts.

[Jewddha]

That would depend entirely on the effect you want. Yes, it would be logistically simpler, but you also have less control over the final appearance.

Oh, and there is a chance the thread will not dye in the same fashion (or at all).

[Pleater]

I'd be inclined to sew down the pleats in place, maybe vertically horizontally and diagonally, like quilting, so that the outer layers of the kilt would be dyed as though it was one thick piece of material.

When released the pleats would then show an ever varying pattern with lighter fabric showing as the pleats swung.

It would need to be very carefully tied under a lot of pressure to get the right effects on such thick stuff, but it would make a very intersting kilt.

Though - an alternative would be to find some felt tips and colour your kilt by hand. If you start at the edge of the pleats and work in strips you could have a colourful kilt in a few hours and a work of art in a few days. You might need to check the washability of the ink, or get fabric dye pens.

[Iolaus]

Hmmm, I wonder how well a subtle tie-die shirt would go with a tartan kilt. I know my what my wife would say; you should have seen her reaction when I proposed a patterend sweater!