Dyeing

I used Wilton's icing colors. It is a concentrated gel. During this session I used 3 colors, Christmas red, sky blue, and violet. Color was added to glass bowls of 2 to 3 cups of hot water. All lace was soaked in a mixture of distilled white vinegar and water. This photo shows the lace before it was rinsed. The next photo is the lace in previous post. I do not know why the blue rinsed out. Better records need to be kept BUT I did nothing to the red or violet that I did not do to the blue. Although, I did not keep exact times; I did not take a lace out to make it lighter, it just came out that way. ******* I kept the dye water hot by microwaving. I sometimes put the lace back in the vinegar bath. And I would add more color always using a new clean toothpick. You do not want to contaminate your food colors. Most of the lace is a synthetic; most likely polyester or rayon but I really don't know. There was color in the flowers of this one strip. The dye bath has darkened and enhanced the color. The smaller edging took the dye the best in both the blue and red. I did not get the violet to dye anything. The cotton doilies and edgings only kept a light tint and mainly look dirty not dyed. Of the 3 border strips in red (light) all were in the dye bath. ONLY the lower one took the dye. The middle one I painted on some dye with a toothpick. I enjoyed my dye experiment. Will next time keep better records.