This one is my favorite, called Plangi. The process is to tightly tie tiny beads (even grains of rice!) in a regular pattern on the fabric and then dye it. Here, I used pony beads, spaced as closely as I could manage. The background fabric was dyed yellow first, followed by a dip in teal.
Each circle is about 1" wide. Our instructor showed us a version that was amazing--super small circles, incredibly close together. I couldn't even come close!
Another type of Plangi, which is essentially "tie dyeing". I gathered from the center, placing a bead at regular intervals to make the concentric circles the same width apart. Again, I dyed the fabric first, followed with teal.
Tritik was a type of resist dye using stitches. The initial picture isn't very informative, but I sewed six parallel lines of running stitches, which were pulled tightly and wrapped around the fabric.
Not my favorite version, but I'm also not convinced I did it correctly!
Pleating and Binding was another dyeing effect I tried out. I used quilting clips, which was perfect for this application (and unaffected by the dyes). The basic set-up is shown below, with fabric accordion pleated then clipped, but I did three different variations.
The final type I tried was Arashi Shibori (pole wrapping). I wrapped a length of fabric around a narrow PVC pipe, then wrapped thread around the pole, evenly spaced. Then, the fabric was squished toward the end, gathering the fabric. I dyed the fabric yellow first, followed by teal.
This is the small swatch I submitted, but the rest of the length of fabric was equally beautiful and exciting!
I have to say, this was hands-down the most enjoyable assignment I've ever completed. It took well over 2 hours, for a very small number of bonus points (which I didn't actually need!), but I loved it all! I don't typically like the look of tie-dye, but there are some pretty designs that can be made and they might look interesting if used in small amounts in a garment. Anyhow, I would highly encourage you to try it out for yourselves, if for no other reason than the fun of unwrapping the fabric at the end. It's like Christmas!
