Why Dye?: Some Thoughts about Dyeing Wool

Sue Makinen's Wool Applique

Since Sue Makinen has joined us at Threadbenders, we've gone a bit applique mad. It's around the bend a bit, but didn't we all want to travel?

Our Vintage Wools

That being said, we started to talk about wool. And wool is truly wonderful to work with. It needles beautifully, you can do astonishing applique with it, and it feels wonderful to work with. 

We have a great collection of vintage wool pieces that are amazing for applique. And we have Sue as our guide, mentor and inspiration.

Peg's Wool Block

Then Peg started to work on this block with hand dyed wool.It's beautiful. No doubt about it. 

But why dye? Why would you make that kind of mess?

Personally I get asked that all the time and the answer is easy. I'm just that messy.

Three Sheep Studio

But dyeing gets you fabric you just can't get any way except by dyeing. Unless you know someone else who can dye it and will share.

Why would we dye?
Several reasons:

From The Cotton Patch

• You can get colors you just don't find anywhere else.There probably isn't much vintage orange, lime green, purple plum, and bright pink wool anywhere. I can't work without those. Can you?

  

  Page by Leslie Main Johnson 

•  You can get ranges of colors. It's nice to have one brown. It's fabulous to have 3 or 4.
• You can have it in quantities that are useful for your work
• A vintage piece of fabric is only as big as it is.I know that sounds obvious, but when you want it for a background and it's in three inch pieces, it is a heartbreak. If you're dyeing your own, it can be in useful sizes.

  

  From The Wool Garden

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• You can get variations in fabric color that are really gorgeous for floral applique especially. Mottled colors are very beautiful in all kinds of flowers, and echo the real shades from a garden.

• You can have fabric that shifts colors. Imagine vines made out of fabric with several greens in them. Are you there?

Finally we have a collection of people in our store doing applique who might really want it.

So we're thinking about it. I dyed up some tiny samples just to get a sense of the process, and we're considering dyeing wool for the store. Are you interested?
Let us know what you think!

And look for Sue's wool applique class coming soon.