Have you ever thought about trying to dye your own fabric for quilting, only to end up thinking, "It looks too complicated," "it's too expensive," "it's too time consuming for too little results," and adding, "and ugh-- THE MESS!" Thus you decided to forget the whole thing! Still...if someone came up with an easy way....

Well, with her book Hand-Dyed Fabric Made Easy, Adriene Buffington brings you a technique for dying your own fabric which is nearly as easy as dying Easter Eggs and nearly as simple as following a recipe in a cookbook. The equipment needed is minimal and inexpensive (as in CHEAP!). And the results bring you not one, but a whole family of colors which are already in perfect harmony with each other, so that they'll blend just right in any quilt.

Starting with the equipment, Buffington does all of her fabric dying in ordinary ziploc bags placed in a small, white dishpan. For mixing the dyes she suggests using rubber gloves (and precautionary dust masks), popscicle sticks, plastic measuring spoons, clear plastic cups, and a few other odds and ends which can be found in places like the Dollar Store, Big Lots, or Family Dollar, or your own kitchen. The only items which would require a little more investment are jars of the powdered dyes Buffington recommends, but for a few ounces of a few colors, a whole rainbow of colors can be created and an awful lot of fabric can be dyed.* The other most important item is soda ash, which can be purchased through the mail or at a swimming-pool supply store. Soda ash (100% sodium bicarbonate) is what causes the dyes to react with the fiber, which eliminates the need for boiling.

As for fabric, while Buffington does cover a variety that give satisfying results, her favorite for dying is bleached or unbleached muslin. (Also inexpensive!) And don't forget, yarns, lace, and embellishments can be dyed, too!

To explain what Buffington calls, her "Color-Family Dyeing" method, imagine you have been dying Easter Eggs. You have a beautiful yellow and an extraordinary blue leftover, so you decide to experiment. You grab a few extra cups and begin mixing different amounts of the blue dye with various amounts of the yellow dye in the extra cups. When you dip your eggs in these cups they come out various shades of yellow, yellow green, green, greenish blues, and blue-greens. You have created a family of colors from two, pure "parent colors," ! ; and because they were all created from the same parents, the colors all harmonize which each other. Don't worry, it really is this simple, and to get you started, Buffington includes easy to follow recipes for creating several different color families in her book. She also provides a handy "Dye Project Work Sheet" to help you keep track of what mixes you use for when you create your own color families. There are also a few fun exercises and suggestions for creating different hues, values, tones, shades, and textures in the fabric that don't take any extra effort, but provide endless possibilities. And in the center of the book is a full-color gallery of quilts made by various artists which not only illustrate just a few of the many ways that hand-dyed fabrics can be employed in quilts, but will have you anxious to get started at dying your own!

Hand-Dyed Fabric Made Easy is a quick to read book (only 55 pages) and it is useful and important to read especially the beginning of the book before you get started on any of the projects. Buffington explains her methods in a way that will help them become second nature to you when you begin your own dying exploration, and as well she covers a few significant safety precautions to take when using the powdered dyes and soda ash. She also covers cleanups (which is helpful!!!) and how to treat your fabric both before and after dying it. My favorite bonus in this book was the few places where Buffington dropped in some humor. They came up totally unexpectedly, but kept me smiling along even as I read through the rest of the book. I think most everyone would enjoy Hand-Dyed Fabric, and it may be something a few of the bees might like to try, as that way they could mix and swap more colors and enjoy appreciating each other's results.

So, if you had ever thought about trying to dye your own fabrics, but after considering the potential hassle you decided to let the idea die instead, now is the time to revive it. Hand-Dyed Fabric Made Easy will make it...easy!

*I did some checking, and a small jar of the brand of powdered dye Buffington recommends was about $4.20 at one store, to give you an aproximate idea.