From Webster’s…Parfait: 2. a dessert of variously flavored layers of ice cream or ices served in a tall glass.
Ok, well I’m not talking about ice cream or ices, but you get the picture, right? Parfait dyeing is done in layers. A friend of mine and her group of friends are going to be doing some parfait dyeing for the first time and I thought I would post some pictures of fabrics I recently dyed in this fashion.
My local grocery store had some wonderful 2 gallon white plastic containers that they were getting rid of for cheap. They are just the right size to comfortably scrunch a one yard piece in and then do layers. I don’t know exactly what they initially had in them, maybe coleslaw or potato salad, but they are the best little buckets for parfait dyeing and I collect them whenever I can.
I scrunched a yard of presoaked pfd in the bottom of the container and poured brown dye over it. Press and scrunch the dye through the fabric. Then I put another presoaked yard on top of the brown. This fabric will pick up colors from the fabric under it and the one on top as well as have it’s own color. I poured a pink dye on this one, press and scrunch so the dye gets through it all…don’t worry about the dyes mixing. Then another yard scrunched in on top and the orange yellow dye poured over it. Press and scrunch it through again. You can see a little bit of the pink on the brown cloth. The pink cloth shows some brown and some orange yellow, and the orange yellow has some pink in it. I love these fabrics.
For these, it was at the end of the dyeing morning and I wanted to use up all my leftover dyes. There wasn’t enough solution left for full saturated colors, but I am happy with how they came out. First layer is a red. The second fabric has a light green, which mixed with the red on the first piece to make some dark streaks. The top color shows up on the green as well as the red. From left to right is how the layers were done, in case anyone wants to know. So technically, each set could be thought of as a “family”. That’s how I think of them anyway.
Art Journal---A Creative Journey 
These look great! Do you launder with anything special or just throw it in regular detergent? I hear people that do it both ways…
Hi Carol, The wonders of Synthrapol is always lauded by some, but I have had no problems with regular laundry detergent.
These colours look amazing – I quilt / make fabric pictures & these fabric shades are fantastic. I have some dye left from last night – I was doing a colour wheel for a course I am doing. One question though – I already have some bought pfd cloth but you talk about it being presoaked – is this with water?? I’d value your advice.
Hi Veronica, Thanks for reading…no, when I talk about pre-soaked, I mean pre-soaked in soda ash. You can do it either way…soak the fabric ahead of time in soda ash solution, or pour it on after you pour the dye on. It might make a little bit of difference which way you do it, but not much, i suppose. If you don’t pre-soak your pfd cloth, make sure to pour about 1/2 cup of soda solution over each yard after you layer it. Hope this helps.