How-To: Make a Shibori Dyed Bedspread

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One of my favorite treatments for textiles is shibori dying. Shibori is an ancient traditional Japanese craft that involves binding fabric around a relief and then dying it in indigo. Once the relief is removed, intricate patterns are left behind.
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Shibori is the original tie-dye, but the art is much more precise, simple, and sophisticated. It can be done by wrapping fabric around bamboo stalks, by folding and clamping, or by stitching the fabric and tugging the threads tight. But for this project, I dug into the junk drawer and used a can full of marbles and a ton of rubber bands. And instead of a vat of indigo, I updated the color palette with turquoise Tulip One-Step Fashion Dye from ILoveToCreate.com. I don’t think there is an easier way to dye anything! The traditional Japanese shibori artist is an apprentice for 13 years, but I had my new bedspread done in just one day.
Head over to the iLoveToWin Daily Giveaway today to win your choice of three colors of Tulip One-Step Fashion Dye.


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Materials

Plain white duvet cover (Mine was king-sized)
Tulip One-Step Fashion Dye, 3 bottles
Marbles, various sizes
Rubber bands, various sizes
Plastic drop cloth
Gloves
Plastic bags and cellophane
Washing machine and dryer

Directions

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Step 1: Prepare your work surface by laying out the plastic drop cloth. Sketch out a design that you love. I went for a random scattering along the diagonal of the duvet cover.
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Step 2: Shibori dying relies on fastening the fabric around a relief. One simple relief technique is to secure a marble on the backside of the fabric with a rubber band.
Hold the marble to the back of both layers of fabric, then wrap the rubber band around the top of the fabric as tightly as you can. To make sure the marble is held in place, give the fabric a good tug.
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Step 3: Everywhere that you want a diamond, tie in a marble.
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Step 4: Once you have tied all the marbles, get the fabric wet with water. Then, don your gloves and fill the Tulip One-Step Fashion Dye bottle with water up to the line. Shake the bottle vigorously until all the dye powder is dissolved. The prepared dye is best used in the next 45 minutes.
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Step 5: Now, just cover the duvet with dye. I emptied the first bottle down the center where my marbles were. Then I filled in the corners with the second bottle, and used the third bottle of dye for filling in the spots that I missed. To blend in all the drops of dye, massage the fabric by kneading it all over with your hands. I really got a workout with the heavy, water-soaked duvet cover, but the dye became homogenous and took to the fabric beautifully.
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Step 6: Cover the duvet with plastic to keep it damp, leave it for 6-8 hours, then rinse it out as well as you can. Remove all the rubber bands and collect all the marbles before you throw it in the washer and dryer. Follow the Tulip One-Step Fashion Dye’s easy instructions for washing and caring for the fabric in its early stages. Voila!

16 thoughts on “How-To: Make a Shibori Dyed Bedspread

  1. lizzcorner.wordpress.com says:

    This would be much more wash fast and intense with Fiber Reactive Type Procion Dyes. Tulip always seems to fade in the wash.

  2. Brookelynn says:

    Thanks for commenting, maybe one day I’ll do a side by side with lots of different types of dye, even natural ones! it would be neat to see how different methods stood up to eachother.
    I’ve never tried the Procion dyes, so I can’t comment on them, but one reason the Tulip dye is perfect for this project is it’s simplicity. One bottle + water and it was good to go. I didn’t even need to use soda ash! And as for the color, it’s still bold and bright. Cheers!

  3. surlyliz says:

    Why do the marbles make diamonds instead of little circles? Do you have to do something in particular when you’re wrapping the rubber band, or does it just work out that way through the mysteries of fabric manipulation?

  4. Christa says:

    Is there some reason this can’t be don’t by just immersing the whole thing in a bucket or washing machine? I don’t have a giant sink or great work area for spreading it out like that.

  5. Karla says:

    “Shibori is the original tie-dye…”
    What exactly does that statement mean??
    “Shibori”, which is simply the Japanese word existed elsewhere LONG before ever arriving in Japan. First of all, it arrived via CHINA, over 1300 years ago, which Japanese Shibori masters point to as the origin for their craft.
    Second, it already existed in Africa long before arriving into Japan via China. The tie-dye practiced in the US arrived via the enslaved Africans who readily used the method for textiles, especially those enslaved on the indigo plantations in the south.
    For a craft “zine”, I cannot understand how such reckless interpretations of history and design can go by unnoticed. Do better!

  6. Karla says:

    “Shibori is the original tie-dye…”
    What exactly does that statement mean??
    “Shibori”, which is simply the Japanese word existed elsewhere LONG before ever arriving in Japan. First of all, it arrived via CHINA, over 1300 years ago, which Japanese Shibori masters point to as the origin for their craft.
    Second, it already existed in Africa long before arriving into Japan via China. The tie-dye practiced in the US arrived via the enslaved Africans who readily used the method for textiles, especially those enslaved on the indigo plantations in the south.
    For a craft “zine”, I cannot understand how such reckless interpretations of history and design can go by unnoticed. Do better!

  7. Rootsboogie says:

    Can we Tie-Dye a Microfiber duvet cover? If anyone has, please advise specifics. We’ve only dyed cotton before. Thanks! -Roots

  8. M says:

    LOL Karla just chill out would you – it’s a craft project, not a history lesson :)

  9. Guest says:

    I’d love to see how this turned out! Do you have a photo of the finished cover?

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