Adventures in bleaching

Bleach trial, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

The other day I gave discharge dyeing (removing colour from fabric with bleach) a whirl.
As I mentioned, I wanted to try this technique on some darker slips and camisoles for my shop but since this technique really only work on natural fibres, and so far all the stuff I have so far is nylon, no dice.

I had a nice dark navy fabric that I bought for some pillowcases, and so I figured I'd test it out on a scrap of that, which is what you see above.
I'm really pleased with how it came out - and I ended up bleaching the rest of the fabric as well.

I really love the look of discharge dyeing - especially the celestial feel of the patterns. I also like the element of surprise that comes with it, at least for a beginner like me, not knowing exactly what it's all going to look like.

I had a slight mishap with my sewing yesterday, but by today the pillowcases should be finished, and I'll hopefully have them up here to show off later today or tomorrow :)