Dying homemade lace?

[sandycreek]

Hey Everyone,

I'm back again with more questions. ( I promise sooner or later I'll be able to offer advice instead of just questions). I cut some lace with the Tandy lace maker (the black plastic stick). No problem. When it came to dying it, I am pretty sure I ended up with about 20x as much dye on me and the workbench as I did on the lace. I was using a small dauber and dying about 10" at a time on the marble slab. Flip it over and repeat. I managed a fairly even color, not to splotchy. Does anyone have a better method for doing this? Maybe some homemade gizmo to speed things up (it took me a little over 25 minutes to get the color even over 6 yards of lace)?

Thanks everyone

-Aaron

p.s. I'm using the homemade RIT based spirit dye if that makes a difference.

p.s.s. Sorry if this has been asked before. I did a forum search on "dying lace" and came up with 15 pages of results and didn't see anything in the first 10 pages that looked like it would help.

Edited April 19, 2009 by sandycreek

[Frank]

I very rarely need to dye lace but if it comes up, I add the dye to a container with a snap-on lid and then put the lace in. I swish the dye around the lace and then pull it out to let it dry. It makes things a lot neater and easier. I hope this helps you out a bit.

[jerryrwm]

I very rarely need to dye lace but if it comes up, I add the dye to a container with a snap-on lid and then put the lace in. I swish the dye around the lace and then pull it out to let it dry. It makes things a lot neater and easier. I hope this helps you out a bit.

I'm with Frank on this one. A cottage cheese container and a wooden skewer do it for me. The skewer lets me pick up the lace and then I hang it up to dry over a couple layers of newspaper. Oh yeah - rubber exam gloves are another essential.

[troy]

I tend to use those disposiable gloves (Got tired of walking around with constantly stained fingers) and use old bits of shearling (left overs from saddles) to apply the dye to the lace - upending the bottle onto the shearling then running the lace throught that - applying more dye to the shearling when needed - tends to be the least messy method I have used.

Then with another pair of gloves apply aussie conditioner to the lace - this binds the dye to the lace and stops it coming off.

[Suze]

I would go with Troy's method myself - it works for paint and sticks

for me anyway - but yes GLOVES are an important part of the process

[wildland]

I just take the lid off and drop the lace in all but the last two inches or so. After a few seconds of soaking I grab a shop towel wrap it around the lace and pull the lace thought it as I pull it out of the bottle. cut off the two inches that aren't dyed, or give it a quick dip and dry with the towel. hang it out of the way for a bit to dry completely.

[cybertracy]

Ziploc-type baggie. Put the lace in cover w/dye and carefully "burp" out the air. Mush it around to cover completely then hold a corner of the bag over the bottle and snip it off to empty most all the dye back into the bottle. I remove the lace and rinse, then (still wearing gloves) I rub human hair conditioner into the tangled lace to detangle and hang to dry. Once dry run the lace between a folded piece of sheep wool to "buff" out the un-soaked in conditioner.

[sandycreek]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Sometime the most obvious solution (i.e. dunking lace in the dye) goes flying right past and leaves me in the dust...

Thanks

-Aaron

[UKRay]

I just take the lid off and drop the lace in all but the last two inches or so. After a few seconds of soaking I grab a shop towel wrap it around the lace and pull the lace thought it as I pull it out of the bottle. cut off the two inches that aren't dyed, or give it a quick dip and dry with the towel. hang it out of the way for a bit to dry completely.

This is also my preferred method - I tend to use a wide mouth glass jar full of stain and coil the lace into that. If you put the lid back on and give the jar a shake it gets rid of any bubbles and ensures a nice even color.

To seal the lace I use Skidmore's Leather Cream on a piece of shearling and simply pull the lace through the shearling to coat both sides and seal the whole job. It is easy to dip the shearling in the Skidmore's pot to 're-charge' it when needed.

Gloves are essential if you don't want to get covered iin dye..

[shoes]

i do the dyeing BEFORE i make the lace. and if the leather is i little bit flanky, daub the flesh side with resoline or angelus. let dry, make lace, no fuzzys!

[8thsinner]

The ziploc idea sounds great but I would add one more thing to it, tie a knot in the end of the lace, and secure this in the bag at the corner to be snipped with an elastic, add dye as normal then snip as normal but the end of the lace is ready to grasp, Tip the bag to the snipped bag is on top then pull the lace out wearing gloves but using friction inside the bag, this should drain off any excess and ensure your dye lasts longer.

[roo4u]

i use many different methods...dunk and shake for colors that i want really dark...or i mostly just pull the lace thru the dye(i use a bent shower curtain hook to hold it down in the dye then i just pull it tru reall quick)...this i do on a table covered in the brown paper that is often used to ship my leather to me. this method keeps the lace from getting really wet from the dye, it is colored but not soaked thru. then hang it to dry...i feel it is important not to coil it while it is wet...when dry i polish the lace with an old sock on my hand, seal it and done.