First I scoured the cotton fabric. I put the fabric in the dyepot with enough warm water to cover the fabric. Added 2 tsp. of washing soda and 3 squirts of liquid soap. Then simmer for 1 hour. Think your fabric is clean when you buy it? Here's what came out
Yucky. Cotton has impurities and so scouring helps dyes to penetrate the fibers.
Then I pulled the turmeric off the spice shelf and made a turmeric soup with a cup of warm water and
4 tbsp. of turmeric. Has the consistency of soupy ice cream
After your fabric is scoured, rinse in warm water and set aside. Fill the dyepot with enough water to cover the fabric and pour in turmeric mixture. Add fabric and simmer for 30 min. It will look very red, but after rinsing and washing with pH neutral soap (i.e. Johnson's baby bath) it will be more like ...
... a warm mustardy gold. I love the weird lighter and darker colors. If I had wanted even color, I would have just gone to Joann's Fabric and bought it... know what I mean?
I was also able to do some discharging with a remnant I bought at Joann's . This was a piece of dark blue cotton fabric that I cut into 3. I used Rit Color Removal powder, boiling water and cold water. This is so easy to do and looks like I used dyes, but I didn't. The Rit powder is supposed to be a low impact product, environmentally. I didn't worry about measuring powder or water. Boiling water is used to activate the Rit powder and cold water is used to stop the process.
Tie dye with rubber bands. You should always wear gloves, dust mask and goggles when working with dyes or discharge materials.
With this technique, I just layed the fabric in a pan and crumpled it a bit. Poured boiling water over it, enough to cover fabric, and sprinkled Rit powder directly on fabric.
To get a sort of shibori effect I wrapped the fabric around a coffee can and rubber banded it, then scrunched it together.
I was really pleased with the results and found it very easy to do. Plus I didn't feel like I might be sprouting a 3rd eye from working with too many chemicals.
Maybe this would be a spooky, swampy abode for Mr. Gator
