Saturday morning I had an e-mail from Rossie about her new Flickr group, take charge DISCHARGE! give it a try OVERDYE! (You may know Rossie as the founder/moderator of the awesome Fresh Modern Quilts pool.) The new group was inspired by Malka Dubrawsky's article for Quilting Arts (Malka has a book coming out soon too!) and is for showing off photos of commercial fabrics that have been altered with bleach or dye. I had other plans for Saturday, but was intrigued and ended up spending the entire day altering fabric!
My first experiment was with bleach discharge. I mixed two quarts water and two cups bleach in a plastic container, added some random pieces of Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party fabric, and let them soak for about seven minutes. I stirred a few times during the soaking process to make sure the fabric bleached evenly. When the fabric was done soaking, I ran it through a wash cycle to get all the bleach out.
The results were pretty cool! That red fabric on the top came out a bit mottled, but all of the others were nice and even.
I noticed that (with the Garden Party fabric anyway) reds, oranges, pinks and greens discharged quite a bit, but blues and cool dark browns didn't change very much at all.
Here are some samples with a lot of orange and green. You can see how much they changed!
Just for fun, I made up some square-in-square blocks using some of the discharged fabrics with the original versions of the same print.
Here's a close-up of one that I really liked.
And another.
I thought the blocks were most successful with fairly plain allover prints like these. I would love to do a whole quilt this way someday!
So, my takeaway from this experiment was that bleach discharge is really fun and really easy. If you're looking to experiment with some of your print fabrics, I definitely recommend giving it a try!
This is so cool! I especially like the green with orange polka dots one. I love how they turned out in quilt squares.
Posted by: Renee | April 19, 2009 at 07:20 PM
Looking great! Reminds me of old-school photography processes where one color gets replaced or desaturated, selectively. Come to think of it, Photoshop does this too. Very cool technique!
Posted by: Misa | April 19, 2009 at 07:30 PM
Wow, the results are really beautiful. I wonder though if the use of bleach would result in the fibres of those fabrics being weakened? If they are weaker than the unaltered fabrics, you might get uneven wear over time perhaps.
Posted by: Melanie | April 19, 2009 at 07:39 PM
I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I read what you did. But then I saw the completely awesome effect when the bleached fabrics were sewn together with the unbleached - very cool! Now I want to try it!
Posted by: Mandy | April 19, 2009 at 07:41 PM
This is really cool. I am inspired!
Posted by: Robyn | April 19, 2009 at 07:41 PM
this is so cool! I'd never heard of bleach discharge before but think I might have to give it a try.
Posted by: ashley | April 19, 2009 at 07:48 PM
it's official. you're fabulous.
Posted by: kangaroo | April 19, 2009 at 07:54 PM
You amaze me, you not only discharged and overdyed, you made a lot of quilt blocks!
I see that someone asked about weakening the fabric. In my experience, quality fabric holds up really well to a little bleaching; I haven't had any problems with my gym bag which is made with discharged fabric and gets knocked around far more than a quilt would be.
: )
Rossie
Posted by: Rossie | April 19, 2009 at 08:10 PM
Whoa. What an awesome idea. I love the idea of mixing bleached/unbleached prints. What a great effect!
Posted by: Suzanne | April 19, 2009 at 08:38 PM
So cool!! This is something I'll have to try one of these days!
Posted by: Alissa | April 19, 2009 at 08:42 PM
this is neat and also easy. I love the red fabric when it turn to be a square block. love love it.
Posted by: Siwa | April 19, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Ok this post is just fantastic! It's like getting a whole new batch of fabric with only a little bleach! Can't wait to try this!
Posted by: Amber | April 19, 2009 at 11:43 PM
I LOVE the bleached blocks - very inspiring, definitely something on my to do list.
Posted by: Alexis | April 20, 2009 at 02:44 AM
great blocks and what great idea for a quilt. i might have to try that. i loved the overall effect.
Posted by: bonnie | April 20, 2009 at 02:53 AM
What's a quart relative to a cup?
Posted by: Emma | April 20, 2009 at 03:11 AM
Another great idea! I love how you've put them together!
Posted by: Jane Weston | April 20, 2009 at 03:42 AM
This looks really fun.
Posted by: Mary P | April 20, 2009 at 06:09 AM
How cool is that? Thanks for sharing your experiment.It looks like a lot of fun.
Posted by: Michaela | April 20, 2009 at 06:24 AM
This was very brave of you. Impressive results. I love your E block.
Posted by: Marcia | April 20, 2009 at 06:34 AM
That turned out really fun! I hope I can be that brave some day, LOL.
Posted by: Amy Sp | April 20, 2009 at 07:48 AM
I, too, averted my eyes at first, seeing all that beautiful AMH fabric next to the bottle of Clorox.
But the results! Wow. So stylish! You've impressed me so many times, and here's just one more technique I'll want to try for myself.
Posted by: Splomo | April 20, 2009 at 09:34 AM
these are really amazing! thanks for sharing.
Posted by: linda p | April 20, 2009 at 10:31 AM
ooooh i'm so giving this a try....love your blocks!! thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: jacquie | April 20, 2009 at 10:55 AM
1 quart = 4 Cups
4 quarts = 1 Gallon
Posted by: Elizabeth | April 20, 2009 at 10:59 AM
What a neat technique! You are so brave to use such awesome fabric in this experiment!
Posted by: Kelli | April 20, 2009 at 12:22 PM