Textile Colour: Printing and Dyeing

• Colour in textiles is a powerful visual element that impacts design inspiration and aesthetic value.
• Fabric colouration can be achieved through printing or dyeing.

Applying Colour - Printing and Dyeing

• Dye creation from plants/animals dates back to the beginning of civilization.
• Fast blue dye from Indigifera tinctorial (indigo) was known in Asia before 3000 BCE.
• Derived from shellfish, Tyrian purple was a prized, expensive ancient dye.
• Cochineal (from cactus beetles) was cultivated in Mexico to give outstanding reds/purples with specific mordants.
• Twenty-first century dyes/pigments are synthetic, from coal or petroleum.
• The textile industry recognizes consumers need accurate color and long-lasting color.
• Colour fastness is how well a garment maintains colour.
• Labels indicate when colours are designed to fade.

Work Health and Safety – Printing and Dyeing

• Treat all chemicals with care and common sense.
• Dyestuff and printing pastes require the maker's instructions to be followed for handling, storing, and using.
• Best practices include wearing gloves/protective clothing, avoiding inhalation of dust/vapours, and prohibiting food consumption.
• Dyes/chemicals should be stored in labelled, suitable containers.
• When mixing dyes with water, add dye to water, not vice versa.
• Dyes should be disposed of carefully, considering environmental hazards.

Printing

• A pigment is an insoluble, coloured substance applied with a binding material.
• Textile printing is a method of surface design through pigment-based paint that allows flexibility when patterning fabrics .
• Printed designs can also be the base for embroidery.
• Printing is significant within cultural and contemporary textile colouration, used on yarns/fabrics/finished products.
• Printing can create multicoloured and intricate patterns.

Principles of Printing

• A printing bed is prepared, containing a soft resist underneath a hard surface.
• A viscous printing paste is applied to the print tool's raised surface and pressed firmly onto the fabric using, sometimes employing a rubber mallet.
• Designs are often repeated by aligning prints, a process known as registration.
• Printed fabrics are heat-set and washed to fix the print and remove debris.

Direct Printing Methods

• Block printing: A design is carved into a material block made of potato, wood, foam, metal or lino.
• Roller printing: Rollers engraved/etched with designs press up to sixteen colours onto fabric.
• Warp printing: Designs are printed onto warp yarns before weaving giving a soft, muted effect.

Resist Printing

• Resist printing prevents printing paste from applying to some areas of the fabric.
• Batik involves using wax as a resist.
• Stencil printing utilizes resists like acetate, plastic, contact paper or masking tape.
• Screen printing's development from stencilling can be done by hand or with machinery.

Screen Printing

• Hand screen printing necessitates labour-intensive work requiring registration skills when working with colours.
• A screen is made for each colour and laid down on the printing bread, with printing pressed to the fabric using a squeegee.
• In machine screen printing, silk/nylon/polyester screens receive a photosensitive emulsion, acting as a barrier.
• Photographic prints exposed to light undergo a chemical reaction, and the residual photosensitive emulsion washes away.
• The fabric to be printed is placed on a conveyor belt, a series of flat screens are lowered automatically.
• Flat-bed screen printing is used for wide fabrics, using automated squeegees.
• Rotary screen printing uses cylindrical screens for a continuous operation.

Ikat

• Ikat resist printing is created by binding the yarns at intervals along the length of the yarn.
• Then the design painted onto the yarn and the fabrics woven.
• Double ikat requires binding and designing yarns carefully.
• Resulting fabrics are noticeably fuzzy where the resist was used.

Heat Transfer Printing

• A specialized printed paper and principle of sublimation are needed.
• Designs are heated at high temperature without steam, which ensures textile fabric needn't be wetted out.
• Disperse dyes printed paper is placed on the face of fabric through pressure-heated rollers which cause the dyes sublimate and transfer to surface of fabric.

Direct Digital Printing

• Direct digital printing (DDP) uses inkjet technology/CAD for printing directly onto fabrics.
• Reactive dyes print on natural fibres; disperse dyes print on polyester.
• Specialist print machines print directly onto fabric widths.
• Using bubble jet solution, DDP designs can be created on a home computer.

Discharge Printing

• Discharge printing is done after the fabric's dyed.
• Print paste contains a chemical that destroys the dye molecules in the print area, used on dark fabrics with white designs.
• As a step, bleaching chemical discharge must be removed.

Dyeing

• Dyeing is when a soluble colour is combined with fiber/yarn/fibre by immersion in dye bath.

Principles of Dyeing

• Weight of fabric determines amount of dye, dissolved into water to create dye liquor or dye solution.
• Fibre/yarn/fabric is wetted to help the fibres to swell; consistency and dye-uptake enhanced.
• In dye bath, material is immersed in the dye solution, a vessel-can also be emulsion/foam carriers.
• Agitation of dye solution assists dye uptake.
• Attraction of dye molecules to the fibre occurs in a process known as migration.

Dye Stage & Impact

• Pre-fibre- Excellent for hard-to-dye fibres, High cost.
• Fibre - Good dye penetration, Fibre dye uptake can vary.
• Yarn - High quality, High cost.
• Fabric - Produces solid colour fabrics, Requires well-prepared Materials.
• Product - Least expensive process, Requires well-prepared materials.

Methods of Dyeing

• The ideal dyeing method is contingent on fabric weight, fibre content and its dye.
• Common methods include batch dyeing, winch dyeing, jig dyeing, pad dyeing, combination dyeing and continuous dyeing.
• Batch dyeing can be used during any production stage on fibre, yarn or end products.
• Winch dyeing is when fabric is sewn at the ends, submerged, for lightweight fabrics.
• Pad dyeing runs fabric through a dye bath with rollers, for large fabric lengths.
• Continous dyeing uses machines to wet, dye and treat textiles, for yarns and fabrics.

Foam & Artistic Dyeing

• Economical, Foam Dyeing uses less water.
• Artistic dyeing refers to patterns made by preventing dye from reaching parts of the fabic by techniques known as folding, tying, stitching, binding, crumpling and twisting.

Appliqué

• Appliqué is the technique of applying fabric shapes to a fabric backing with exceptions of thick pile fabrics.
• Appliqué fabrics are colourfast and pre-shrunk.
• Fusible web stabilises non-knit fabric that will be subject to stretching.
• Finishing edges can be accomplished in different methods such as satin stitch, or free-motion stitching.

Satin Stitch Appliqué

• Draw an appliqué reverse design onto back of fusible web and cut out the shape.
• Peel off paper backing to iron appliqué shape to background fabric.
• Stabilize with tear-away stabilizer to stitch edges.
• Avoid reversing your stitch.
• Use straight stitch (SWO/SL3) and stitch 2 mm from edge for straight applie stitch.
• Apply appliqúe with free-motion stitching.
• Add blanket stich to the appliqué following instructions.

Reverse Appliqué

• This is a method that does not use fusible web or tear-away stablizer.
• Fabric pen us use to draw reverse shaped.
• With a straight stich, stich around shape with the appliqué face-down.
• Scissors or a similar took can cut close to stitch to leave the appliqué mostly underneath.

Embroidery

• Used the decorate base fabric with yarn.
• A wide array of yarns are sutable with multiple variations of fabric and thread.

Hand Embroidery Basics

• Even spaces and stitchlength make a good running stitch.
• Use running stitch with various fabrics.

Types of Stitches

• Back Stitch is a well-know outline stitch.
• Stem requires backward motion and yarn on the left.
• Chains use looped stiches the outline or fill.
• The stitches are slanted and used in rows for Cross Stitch.
• The Y-shape is key for outline of filling in Fly Stitch.
• Depends on twisting style, French Knot create variety of sizes.
• For borders use Blanket stitch.

Couching

• Can be created using various kinds of fabrics in conjunction with various kinds of threads of a contrasting colour.

Machine Embroidery

• The sewing machines decorative tools can be elevated through decorative/utility/embroidery threads.

Free Motion Embroidery

• This type of machine embroidery uses a darning foot and lowered drive to sew in almost any direction!
• "Fast foot- and slo hand" technique is needed to ensure stitch shorts consistency.
• If stitches are too long, machine may move too slow.
• For success, ensure the right machine manual can be references for info on free-motion stitching.
• Thread changes and needs for polyester should be addressed immediately.
• Flat fabrics and stabisers can be implemented the prevent puckering.
• Tension check requires fabric samples.