Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Dyeing Burlap Ribbon with RIT Dye...

My apologies for the lack of a Mason Jar post yesterday...

We have a Christmas open house coming up this weekend and I miscalculated the time it would take to do the outdoor decorating, clean some brush and debris, clean out the building where we hold the open house, get the trailer, unload the trailer and do silly things like eat and such...

And none of that includes  ANY set-up.

Once we got it unloaded, we took the trailer back, parked it and locked the door for the night....

I have a couple mason jar ideas almost ready to photograph and write, but it was a no-go for Monday... 

 You will get one next week...

So, for now...

Recently I was shopping and saw some really neat colored burlap ribbon.

I had gathered a handful of colors  and then saw the uncolored burlap on another shelf. 

 It was twice as much ribbon for the same price....

Now, you may not know this about me...

I am thrifty.

I am cost-conscious.


am 

.....

cheap.

I could not bear to pay more for less.

So I bought a couple rolls and brought them home to dye my own.

I gathered supplies on one of the last nice days....



I mixed some Scarlet dye in an ice cream bucket with water.

I wanted to dye just one half of the ribbon red....

So I only filled the bucket half way.



I did another bucket with Dark Green.

You can see some pinecones from another post took a dip too...


I lifted the ribbon from the dye and let it drip back into the bucket.

Once it had mostly drained, I set it on this container to finish draining.


Once it stopped dripping, I flipped it over and set it in the bucket of green dye.

Half green, half red.


I removed it and let it drain as well.



I set them by the wood stove  for an evening.

The next morning, I rinsed the roll with cold water in the sink until the water ran clear.

Then I unrolled it and let it dry over the fence in the back yard...

Something cool happened....

Once I unrolled it, there is a tan stripe down the middle that did not dye....




What do you think?

It was an accident....

I LOVE IT!




I love the half green ribbon too...




I can't wait to show you some of the things I did with it...

Hint.

Most of it will be making an appearance for our open house....

Stay tuned...

Thanks for stopping by....

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