Discharging the Dog

After doing the discharge dyeing experiment I described in my lab report, I knew the Safeway cleanser was useless for discharge dyeing, so I didn't bother going further with that one--I guess I'll have to use it for cleaning my sink! Instead, I played with using stencils and sponge stamps with the Soft Scrub With Bleach cleanser, as well as with freehand squirting on other colors. Here I have taped the stencil onto a jeans sample and then dabbed the Soft Scrub on the stencil:


I used the flower stencil (the pink one in the picture above), and then went back and added extra Soft Scrub to the center flower motifs so they would appear brighter (more bleached) than the stems and leaves. Here you can see the results from making the layer of Soft Scrub thicker in some areas.


In the next sample, I used the stenciling sponge to stamp on some circles, and the centers got a very thin layer of Soft Scrub, while the outer edges got a thick layer. The outer edges are much more bleached than the centers. Here they are wet:


Then rinsed and dried:

This picture and the previous one show how you might use the thickness of the Soft Scrub to create subtle shading in your discharge dyeing pieces.

Note the yellowish tint in the circles in the upper sample with the red stitching. This was a pair of jeans that had been sewn together, then treated (probably stonewashed and over-dyed). If you look near the red stitching, you can see that the bleached parts near the red stitching are pale blue, not yellowish, because the seams of the jeans did not get the over-dyeing treatment like the rest of the pants.

Here is a sample of part of a mesh polo shirt that had been previously tie-dyed and loved and worn until it fell apart. In this case, the turquoise dye bleached to nearly white, but the fuchsia dye merely bleached to pink. My daughter did this one.


Here's an old tie-dyed sock (also loved and worn out) with greens and turquoise. Note that the greens didn't bleach to white. They kept a yellow-brown tinge (no, that's not just the ground-in dirt). My daughter did this one too.


This bandana had been previously dyed with turquoise and yellow-green. I was sloppy stenciling this one, and you can see white spots where I left the Soft Scrub a little too thick.


I also did a sample on a piece of plaid synthetic knit, and left it overnight. The result? Only the very faintest amount of fading, and I think that I may just be seeing some of the Soft Scrub grit that hasn't washed out completely.


I had better luck stenciling on an old towel that I use to catch the drips underneath my tie-dye pieces. Since I use these towels over and over, they get quite a medley of dye colors, so they have a nice medley of colors in the discharged area. I was pretty happy with this effect.


One of my loyal readers complained that he hadn't seen nearly enough dog pictures in my blog lately (yeah, that lab report really could have used a few Lacey pictures to liven it up!). My kids came to the rescue and created a couple of discharge-dyed bib/capes for Lacey. This dog will cheerfully put up with just about anything if there are treats involved! Here she is:


Lacey has officially discharged her duty (for now).