Snow Dyeing Fabric and Yarn (step by step tutorial)

How to Ice Dye or Snow Dye – basic steps:

1. Soak materials in Soda Ash and water
2. Fold your fabric and secure with rubber bands
3. Place all in large container and cover with snow
4. Sprinkle the dyes on top
5. Rinse and dry

Supplies needed

• Plant Fiber Fabric s/a Cotton Flour Sack Towels
• Cotton, Linen or Bamboo Yarn
• Procion MX Dye
• Soda Ash
• Container to soak materials to be dyed **
• Container for dyeing (I used an old Crock Pot) **
• Wire rack ***
• Snow or Ice
• Rubber Bands
• Dust Mask
• Gloves
• Measuring Cup
• Water
• Chopsticks

** You will need one large container to soak your materials in the soda ash/water mixture. This can be a large plastic tub or bucket.

Also, you will need a large container for the actual dyeing process which has tall sides to hold the snow or ice. I used an old Crock Pot (dedicated to dyeing only).

Note: you can use the same container for soaking and dyeing!

*** The wire rack needs to fit inside your dyeing container and keeps the fabric or yarn raised. As the snow or ice melts, it (and the dye) will pool at the bottom of the container.

If you don’t have a wire rack to fit, you can simply use an old aluminum pie plate with holes punched in it or balled up pieces of foil.

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Dyeing Safety

NEVER use pots, pans, measuring cups etc. that are used for food prep.

ALWAYS wear a face mask when handling dry dye powder.

Helpful Tip from Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan: Cover your work surface with newspaper and spritz them with water. This will attract dry dye particles that may escape.

Soak the Cotton Materials

The first thing you need to do is soak your yarn and fabric in a Soda Ash and hot water solution for about 20 minutes. This helps the fiber reactive dyes to ‘set’ or become colorfast and washfast.

The basic ratio is 1 Cup Soda Ash to 1 Gallon of Hot Water. If you don’t plan to dye many items, you may want to start out with half of that i.e. 1/2 Cup to 1/2 Gallon.

Note: The Soda Ash/Water mixture can be saved in a lidded container for your next dye project. I keep mine in a large mason jar.

Fold the Fabric

Take the fabric out the Soda Ash and squeeze out the excess liquid. Now, you will want to fold or scrunch your fabric. This will create designs in the dyes.

I did a simple spiral fold and secured it with the rubber bands.

Honestly, I was a little sloppy in my folding or the colors would have been a bit more crisp.

Add the Dyes

First, place the wire rack in your Crock Pot or other container. (See my note below about how I messed this one up!)

Then, lay the folded towel and yarn, if using, on top of the rack. Now, you want to go outside and gather up the snow!

Your container should be filled to the top with snow so get more than you think you will need.

Finally, the fun begins! Put the dust mask over your nose and mouth, then go ahead and open all of your dye containers.

Pick up your first color and, using the chopsticks, carefully sprinkle a bit of dye onto the snow. Only a little bit at first.

Repeat with two or three more colors until the snow is just covered. You don’t want to add too much dye or too many different colors.

For this experiment, I used Raspberry, Lime and Aqua Marine.

Once you are finished adding dyes, put a top on the container and let it sit until the snow has melted or overnight.

Rinse the dyed materials

Once all the snow has melted, put your gloves back on and remove the towel and yarn. Careful, it will drip so you may want to do that in the bathtub or sink.

Now you need to rinse, rinse, rinse with water until it no longer bleeds color. Then you can go ahead and wash the fabric, separately, in your washing machine and hang it to dry.

Your freshly dyed tea towel (or T Shirt) and yarn are now ready to use.

Snow Dyeing Fabric and Yarn