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- I have chosen 400ml. Place a mark there with a permanent marker to remind
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- yourself, or make a note if you need to. The volume of water isn't as important as
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- providing enough liquid to soak the fabric. Place the lid on the jar of dye and set
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- aside. Clean and clear away the scale and fabric. Wipe your surface to be sure there is
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- no dry dye powder hanging around. Keep the piece of fabric for later use. Now that
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- the dye is dissolved you can remove your dust mask.
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- Line up 6 bottles, jars, buckets or zip-lock bags on the table. If you are using plastic
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- bags, put them into a tray to keep them under control. I will be using bottles so that
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- you can see more clearly what I'm doing. Simply place one fat quarter into each
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- container. Push it down to the bottom. You can dye larger pieces of fabric if you
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- want to. It's a simple matter to calculate the extra dye and soda ash needed. (see
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- Basic Dye Recipe')
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- This is the fun part. Line up the containers of fabric so that it is easy to work in order.
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- Take your jug of dissolved dye concentrate. Identify which is the first piece of fabric
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- and pour half of the contents of the jug into the first container. The level is now at
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- 200ml. Using your warm water, refill the jug to the original level. Remember for me
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- this is 400ml. Pour half of this into the next container. We're back to 200ml. Refill the
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- jug with more warm water to the original level. Continue in this manner until each
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- container has dye in it. Be very careful when you get to the last two containers. It is
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- very tempting to pour the last half from the 5th container into the last container. If
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- you do this, the last two will be the same colour strength. Don't do it. Remember to
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- refill the jug that last time to the original level of 400ml and pour in half. Set the
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- remaining dye aside for a tray dye using Method Two: Slow and Comfortable later or
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- just discard it (see 'Different Dye Methods') When you have dye in each container,
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- use your stirring stick to squish the fabric down into each container to make sure
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- there is no white fabric showing. If you are using plastic bags, simply seal the bag
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- and give a good squish. Pay particular attention to any fabric folded or bound so
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- that the dye penetrates to the middle of the fabric ball.
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- Each piece of fabric will have received exactly half as much as the piece before it.
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- You will have noted how the colour became lighter the closer to the end of the row
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- of containers you came. You can alter the steps between the shades by simply
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- changing how much dye solution you pour into each container. You can make the
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- steps further apart by using 3/4 of the liquid in each step, or by decreasing to a third
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- or a 1/4 to get them closer together. You can increase the amount of steps to get
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- more shades, or decrease to get less.