Ever since I spied this pretty picture on Pinterest of some dip-dyed ribbon I have been wanting to try it. It is originally from Ruffled, and uses muslin as the ribbon.
I have some roman shades that are going to need a banding, so I figured I'd give grosgrain ribbon a try.
What you will need is: Ribbon and some dye. I love Dye-Na-Flow. I have used it several times, and the colors are very true and it already mixed and you can paint with it. Water down to lighten colors. Its also cheap, less than $3 a jar.
So I cut a few test pieces and wet half of them. I rolled and dipped...
On some I tapped off the excess to keep the dyed edges smaller. If you don't it will travel up farther.
I was getting a bunch of different looks...
I documented them for you.
Here are the strips that I wet first... I also used a small paint brush and ran a second (blue) color through, either down the center or along the edge. This batch bled quickly and was harder to control, but I really on eon the right.
So I played around with the brush technique next, running a wet brush down both sides. I actually like the look of this a lot.
Next I wanted to add dots and make a more Ikat looking pattern...
I ran a thin line of dye down the center to see what happens...
Then I rolled up a bunch and used my brush to paint three stripes along the edges inward... like I was cutting the circle in thirds. It bled quickly, and I kept adding dye until I felt it was good. I did the same on the other side...
I strung it over two chairs to work ...
This has me wanting to buy more white grosgrain and play around with other techniques. I have a lot of colored ribbon, so I thought I would try out bleach on it...