Altering Hand Dyes

After having a slightly busy day and not able to get a quilt on the longarm, I decided to spent a couple of hours playing and prepping fabric for future projects.

I dug through my huge stack of hand dyed fabrics that I've made, for pieces to over dye using Tumble Dye which is a spray-able heat set dye. After a short trip to my back yard to find some large leaves with good veining and selecting an assortment of fat quarter fabrics, I pressed my fabrics. Laying the fabrics on a sheet of plastic and placing the leaves vein side up, I sprayed the outer edge around the leaves and spritzed the veins so the dye puddled a little. Then I flipped the leaf over onto the unsprayed leaf spot and pressed the leaf into the fabric with my hand, being certain to press all of the puddled dye into the fabric. This makes the veining prominent.  I then pressed the dyed piece without steam to heat set the dye.

Ingredients to replicate what I've done:

Hand dyed fat quarters in assorted colors.
Tumble dye
Leaves with prominent veins or fake plastic ferns.
Old towel to place under dyed pieces while ironing.
Iron and iron board.
Paper towels to sop up over spray.
Plastic for work area.
Rubber gloves


I've used this method many times and it creates a very cool shadow effect that I love for my art pieces. I hope you have fun.