Indigo Fairy - The Beginning

I love online swaps and recently I joined one called Needful Things which is being hosted by Val over at Yarnigras Swapper Spot. We are to make at least one of the items we send our partner and then can either purchase or make at least 5 other fun things. Well, after careful deliberation I chose to make a fairy for my partner in her favorite color. I know that the fairy will exceed the $30 package cost but I am too excited about making her to care!

Armature

Taped and Ready for Clay

Tools of the Trade

Baked and Ready for More

This sweet little fae must be complete and mailed by this Saturday so I'll be moving pretty fast on her. 

Yesterday I dyed several hanks of fabric including some Dupioni Silk and a nice cotton sheeting along with a small pelt of Tibetan Lamb.

Original Pelt

Rinsed and Ready to Go

Tools

In the Dye

I searched the internet and found several ideas for dying the hair but the products they mentioned (other than Kool-Aid) were either not available locally or were not in stock in the color I needed, so I decided to experiment.

I am using Dylon permanent fabric dye in a deep blue. Since this dye is also suitable for silk and wool I figured it should work.

To start I had to mix the dye with 4 cups of water and stir it until the dye was dissolved. Note – use a bigger bowl than I did. When stirring I managed to spill it on my white tile counter. The good thing is that it did clean up easily but I will have to take some scouring powder and scrub the grout to remove the last traces or dye.

I then rinsed the hair I planned to dye and gently patted it with a paper towel to remove the excess water.

Next I filled a container with enough water that the hair could move freely and added 4 tablespoons of salt. Stir to dissolve the salt.

Once the salt was dissolved in the water I added the dye, stirred it until it was completely combined with the salt water then in went the pelt of Tibetan lamb.

Now we wait. I let the pelt soak in the dye for an hour, checking it occasionally. I can tell you during the entire process that I had no idea how the hair was taking the color. The dye was just too dark and I didn’t want to rinse it early.

Once the hour was up I rinsed the pelt in warm (not hot!) water, combed it out and let it dry. Not too bad. I then let it sit in the dye overnight and got a slightly darker color. Next time I will either order the color I want from someone or order the correct dye online. 

Dry and Ready to Use

Thankfully the fabric I dyed is stunning and perfect for her costume and the Tibetan Lamb will work just fine to add streaks of color to her hair.