Another Inkodye pouch

I've made another Inkodye tutorial, this time posted on the Etsy blog. Click here to read about this fancy lady pouch project.

Make photographic fabric prints with Inkodye

I played around some more with Inkodye, the permanent, water-based dye that develops its color in sunlight. After making easy shadow prints using safety pins and leaves, prints using cardboard cutouts, and a design with a freezer paper stencil, I tried working with a photo negative that I printed at home.

For this experiment, I did a Google image search and set the filters to display large black-and-white photographs. I found an image online that I liked: this desktop wallpaper with a 1962 Ford Thunderbird admired by elegant ladies. "Betty, is that your new car?" "Yes, Shirley. Isn't it mahvelous? Good thing I have a massive driveway so I'll never need to parallel pahk this boat."

I inverted the image in Photoshop to make it a negative and printed it on some old 3M CG3460 inkjet transparency film I found in my closet.

Even if you don't have Photoshop, you can turn any photo of your own into a negative. Bold photos with lots of contrast will work best.

Go to the online image editor Pixlr. Choose "Open image from computer" to upload your photo. From the top menu, choose "Adjustment">"Desaturate" to make the image black and white. Then select "Adjustment">"Invert" to create a negative image. You can also play with brightness, contrast, or levels to get dark blacks and bright whites for good printing. Finally, choose "File">"Save."

Then print the negative onto printable transparency film. Order some from Amazon or the Lumi website. Follow the directions on the package for feeding the sheets through your printer.

If you need larger negatives, try splitting your image in half, printing on two sheets, and taping them together.

Or if printing your own negatives sounds like a pain, you can download the Lumi iPhone app to order custom negatives delivered to your doorstep.

After printing out the negative, I got the fabric ready. A piece of cardboard wrapped with a plastic trash bag makes a great waterproof work surface. I taped my piece of cotton canvas to the board to hold it in place while brushing on dye.

Then I poured a little Inkodye into a cup and brushed it on with a foam brush. Doing this in a room with subdued lighting is important— you don't want the dye to start changing color before you're ready! Try to get an even layer of dye on the fabric. The cloth doesn't need to be soaking wet; just thoroughly coated.

Mix Inkodye with water in a 1:1 ratio to stretch it farther; you'll get the same vibrant color. Or add even more water to get lighter colors. Mix colors to create new hues if you want.

I used a paper towel to blot off all the excess dye I could remove. Too much moisture can cause condensation on the negative, and this can mess up your print.

Then I laid the negative on top of the fabric, printed side up so the ink wouldn't get wet and smear. In case there was a slight breeze outside, I stuck on a piece of tape to secure the negative so it wouldn't blow away. Add more tape if needed, but I wouldn't recommend taping down all the edges or you'll trap more water inside, increasing condensation.

Then I carried the board outside into direct sunshine. See the little animation I made? That's what it looks like as the dye starts to change color from nearly clear to purplish indigo, and eventually to blue. Condensation started to appear which worried me; I've had prints ruined by that before, but this one turned out okay.

After 10 minutes of exposure, I took the board back indoors to a dim room and removed the negative.

Then I immediately washed the fabric with laundry detergent in hot water. The goal is to remove the undeveloped dye from the light areas before it turns color. Scrub really thoroughly or put your print right into the washing machine. The Inkodye company recommends washing it twice. The dye is permanent, so don't worry that you'll wash off the blue areas. They're there to stay, so you can dye clothing and bags and wash them regularly going forward.

Here's the final print.

I decided these ladies needed some friends, so I chose this McCall's pattern fabric for a lining and sewed this print into a zippered pouch.

You could make prints of your kids, your house, your Prius, or your Persian kitty. Print on aprons, t-shirts, hoodies, or pillows. Good times!

DIY printed tote bag using the sun

I added a design to a blank tote bag using light-sensitive Inkodye and a stencil cut from freezer paper.


Inkodye is a water-based dye that works on natural materials like fabric and wood, and develops its color in the sun. It dyes fabrics permanently, and I like it better than fabric paint since it soaks into the fabric and keeps it soft and flexible, unlike fabric paints that can be stiff and sit on the surface of a textile. Plus, it's really fun watching the color develop!


To make a similar tote, you can create your own design or download the Big Fun stencil I made.

Print the design and trace it onto the dull side of plastic-coated freezer paper, available at grocery stores. Or, save yourself a step and print directly on freezer paper cut to fit through your printer. Tape a piece of freezer paper, shiny side down, to a sheet of copy paper and print on it. It will come out a bit curly and lightly fused to the carrier sheet if you use a laser printer like I did, but it should peel off easily.


Cut out the letters and shapes. Remember that any empty hole will get filled with color, and no dye will go where the pieces of paper sit.

With an iron set to the appropriate temperature for your fabric (likely the cotton setting), iron the paper pieces to the tote, shiny side down. The iron will very slightly melt the plastic coating, sticking the paper to the canvas. Give the pieces an initial quick, light press to make sure they're where you want them. If not, peel them up and reposition. Then press down firmly with the iron and make sure all the edges are sealed so no dye will seep under them. Once they're stuck down, the pieces are really stuck, and will probably tear if you try to peel them off.

If there are any areas you're worried about getting dye— you know, if you tend to lose your mind a little and start painting outside the lines— mask those off with painter's tape. Place a piece of freezer paper inside the tote to prevent any dye from soaking through to the back side.


Then, in a dimly lit room, brush on Inkodye with a foam brush. Or any kind of brush or roller will do the job! Try for even coverage. The fabric doesn't have to be completely saturated; you just need a nice even coat on the surface of the textile.

(You can mix Inkodye with water to make it go further, if you like. A 1:1 ratio of dye to water will still yield maximum vibrance. Add more water to make pastels, or mix colors as you would paint.)


Blot off any excess dye with a paper towel.


Place the tote in the sun. The color will start to develop instantly! Here's the tote after 30 seconds, a minute or two, and fully exposed after 10 minutes.


Peel off the paper, my favorite part.


If you like, you can wash the tote with laundry detergent to remove any excess dye. Or just let it air dry and call it a day.

Make a botanical print on fabric

My latest experiment using Inkodye, a photo-sensitive dye that changes color in sunlight, is posted at SheKnows.com. Head over there to see the full tutorial.

Print your own fabric with Inkodye

I played with Inkodye again—a photo-sensitive dye that uses the sun to develop prints on natural materials like wood and fabric. One nice thing about using this dye instead of fabric paint is that fabric stays soft and flexible, instead of stiffening like it does with paint. Plus watching prints develop is always fun!


I made a simple cloud design this time, since I knew that achieving perfectly crisp edges is tricky due to shadows that might occur. And clouds can have soft edges, so if that's what happened, all the better.


To make your own cloud print, you'll need Inkodye, fabric, a foam brush, a large piece of cardboard wrapped in plastic for your work surface, masking tape, cardboard for cutting out shapes, a pencil and scissors.


Sketch clouds onto cardboard. You could use a cereal box or other recycled cardboard for this; avoid regular paper since it might let light through and it will curl more easily if it gets damp.


Cut out the clouds.


Tape the edges of the fabric to your work surface to keep it in place while you brush on dye. (My "work surface" was a piece of corrugated cardboard wrapped in a garbage bag, which worked great.)


Mix up your Inkodye solution. It's fine to use it straight from the bottle, but it's very concentrated so you can mix it with water to stretch it. Use a 1:1 ratio of dye to water, and colors will still be vibrant. I used about 1/4 cup of each for this project.

In a dim room away from direct sunlight, quickly brush the dye evenly over the surface of the fabric.


Then blot up any excess dye until the surface feels barely damp. Less moisture will keep the cardboard shapes from curling up.

Arrange the cloud cut-outs over the fabric. Then carry the board into a sunny area, set it down, and don't move it while the dye develops. (About 8 minutes on a sunny day, 15 on a partly cloudy day.) For best results, expose prints around noon when the sun is directly overhead; it will help reduce cast shadows.


It's helpful to weigh down your shapes to prevent curling; I used some stacks of coins. Place them quickly to prevent the cardboard from shifting. Once exposed to sunlight, the dye will begin turning color within seconds. When your print has been exposed long enough, bring it back inside before removing your shapes. Remember, the unexposed areas will immediately begin to turn color if you remove the cutouts outside, so resist the urge to peek immediately.


Quickly begin washing out the excess dye in hot, soapy water, scrubbing thoroughly. Rinse, and you're done! The resulting print will be permanent and machine washable.


If you'd like to give it a whirl, Inkodye is available here.

Doily-print fabric made with photosensitive dye

It's spring in Chicago, which means wet things no longer freeze outside and the sun actually shines. So I tried another project with Inkodye, the photosensitive dye tested in a few projects last year. I'd received samples from the manufacturer to play with, and I've been curious about using paper doilies as stencils.

I taped a piece of white cotton canvas to cardboard wrapped in plastic. With a sponge brush, I applied red-orange dye. (Fabric really soaks this stuff up, so this required over half a bottle.) Update: I've learned that using a 1:1 ratio of dye to water works just as well!

Next I arranged paper doilies on top. As I suspected, the doilies started to curl when they absorbed a little moisture from the wet dye, so I quickly poked some straight pins into them to hold down the edges. Then I placed the board in direct sunlight on our back landing and hoped our neighbors wouldn't step on it as they came down the stairs.

Ten minutes later, I removed the doiles and scrubbed the fabric in soapy water.

The white blotches are where the dye soaked into the doilies and they stuck to the fabric. A little bit unfortunate.

On the other hand, I suppose you could argue this looks like some sort of faded, distressed antique — a tea towel discovered in a French flea market, maybe. And since my decorating style is supposedly "Country French," along with 89% of you, we should appreciate this, right? I give it a B-. But it was fun.

A DIY fabric project using light-sensitive dye

Another project in the Inkodye series. This time I tried to get fancy with the light-sensitive dye and see if a drawing could be transferred onto fabric. (Click the image above to view a little larger.) Mixed results this time.

To make this fabric, I stretched out a piece of Saran wrap and taped down the corners to keep it taut. Then I drew on it with a black DecoColor paint pen. I needed something very opaque that would write on plastic, and this was perfect.

I thought the fine lines would be a good test to see how crisp the final print would turn out.

Then I removed the drawing and taped a piece of white cotton to my waterproof surface (i.e. cardboard wrapped with plastic). I applied red-orange Inkodye with a foam brush. Next I blotted off as much dye as I could. This was recommended in what I'd read on the manufacturer's site. Apparently if you plan to cover your damp surface with plastic or a piece of glass, water will tend to condense on the underside of the glass. And that will produce pale spots on your print. The idea is to get your surface as dry as possible, so let's see if the blotting method solves the problem.

I stretched the Saran wrap drawing over the treated fabric and taped it down, then placed the fabric in direct sunlight for 5 minutes. I was bummed to see some condensation start to appear between the plastic and the fabric, sure enough.

When the color looked fully developed, I immediately brought the fabric inside, untaped it, and rinsed it under a faucet. Then I washed it thoroughly by hand in water with laundry detergent. Overall the design is cute, but you can see light areas where water from the condensation diluted the dye. They're noticeable when you click the first photo in this post to view it larger. And some of the lines aren't as perfectly crisp as this stickler would like. The upshot: if you want a perfect print, this probably isn't the method to use. But it was fun!

Someone wondered in the comments on a previous post what the back side of the dyed fabric looks like. Here it is. And I haven't washed this in the machine yet, but I'll give you a report when I do. I don't expect the color will fade much, if at all.

Update: After machine washing, I'd say the color faded a little bit. But not too badly.

You can check out previous projects using Inkodye here and here.