RECLAIMED
An exploration of the differences in dye qualities of virgin and recycled muslin as well as traditional and natural dyes.
Inspired by a graphic women's streetwear collection.
created summer semester 2019
CONCEPT & DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTATION
The ability of a fabric to hold color and the ability of a dye to reach a certain chromaticity are two of the most important factors in deciding what a garment will be made out of. With a growing industrial need for and a personal passion to increase the use of natural alternatives to modern practices, I experimented with a comparison of virgin and organic muslins and how they held up to traditional and natural dye methods.
The raw muslin strips with the dye stuffs of spinach and Rit Dye.
Adding the first two muslin strips to the Rit Dye.
The first two muslin strips fresh out of the Rit Dye, hand-rinsed and hanging to dry.
Boiling the spinach.
Adding the second two muslin strips to the strained spinach water.
The second two muslin strips fresh out of the spinach water, hand-rinsed and hanging to dry.
Final Result: The Rit Dye took to the virgin muslin and sustainable muslin strips equally and as expected. The spinach dye did not take at all to either strips.
FINAL FINDINGS
As far as the dyeing processes go, I was fairly disappointed to find most of them didn't work. Perhaps there are things to be done differently next time, such as juicing the raw veggies first, adding extra ingredients, or just leaving the fabric in for longer. I was glad to see the coffee worked out, only if mildly.
I was excited to see, though, the minor differences in colors between fabrics. If anything, the recycled strips came out more saturated than the virgin strips, but I think the difference in weight may have contributed to that.
In conclusion, the traditional Ritz's Dye is still more reliable than the natural dye stuffs, but it performs well on recycled organic muslin, so that is promising.
The 4 strips for each of the 4 colors are lined up for comparison.