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teeeej Jan 26, 2008

I rescued some bears from ebay a while ago that were all cut out and ready to be stiched. Two of the bears are cut out from a very bright pink fabric and I want to mute the colour a bit to better fit the pattern. I have been told that parisian essence can be used to age mohair, but I have never attempted dying or aging before. Does anyone have some tips for me??

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Therese

Eileen Jan 26, 2008

Hi Therese,

A bath in strong tea does a lovely job of muting colors. I'd experiment first!

patsylakebears Jan 26, 2008

Hi Therese, Parisian essence works as does strong tea as Eileen says I would experiment with the colours first.

WhimzeeBearz Jan 26, 2008

Hi Therese

I used to use Parisian Essence back when I made cloth dolls.  It works beautifully, however it is a lot stronger than a tea dye so I would start by just dipping in the mixture and taking straight out and rinsing in tepid water a few times.  This way you can build up the intensity slowly.  Be careful too as it can tend to attach itself more in some areas and leave darker streaks and you don't want to  end up with a bad fake tan job !

Megelles Jan 27, 2008

Hi Theresa

Just to let you know that parisian essence will fade over time and it will wash out.  In doll making it is combined with modge podge or something similar that is painted onto the fabric.   Tea is a permanent dye
Can I suggest Tan Rit dye for fabric?  I use it a lot with fabric dying (quilts) and when I make up a solution I often 'chuck' in a bit of mohair and the results are great.  But experiment on a little piece first.  If it is very bright pink you may have to remove some of the dye first but there are products in the supermarket that you can buy to remove dye.  It maybe enough just to use one of these to tone down the pink.

teeeej Jan 27, 2008

Thanks everyone for the tips. I managed to find a bit of the same pink mohair at Gerry's yesterday so I guess I will do some experimenting with it to see how it goes. I do have some Rit dye somewhere so I will try that as well.

Thanks :love:

Edit: I got bored in the last few hours so I had a play with some mohair dying. I tried tea with a little bit of parisian essence and some rit dye. It is drying in the warm and windy weather right now. Hopefully I can post some pictures tomorrow and show you the colour changes.