The Dying
Generally speaking there are 3 types of dying. Fibre, Yarn and Piece. In that order they are best to least best.
Piece Dying
A piece is typically 65 meters of fabric woven continuously onto a large spool. Piece dying involves a plain raw piece of fabric with no checks or lines being rolled back off that spool into the dye and then back onto another spool having taken the desired single colour.
- Pro: This is the most cost effective way to dye making the fabric less costly overall.
- Con: You can only dye the fabric one colour
- Con: The dye isn’t as deeply cast as it could be and so will fade sooner and/or wont have the vibrance of the other two methods
Yarn Dying
Yarn dying is exactly that – the yarn is spun off it’s spool into the dye and then back onto a spool once the dye is cast. This is the medium level of dying as is the most common amongst fabrics with 2 or more colours within them. Those colours are achieved by weaving with different coloured yarns.
- Pro: You’re able to create patterns within the fabric using different coloured yarns.
- Pro: The dye is cast a little deeper than piece dying and so the stay and vibrance is more permanent and intense and less prone to fading.
- Con: It’s less cost effective than piece dying and so the overall fabric will cost more.
- Con: Although the dye is cast more deeply than piece dying it isn’t as deep as it could be.
Fibre Dying
Fibre dying is the process of dying the raw fibres of the particular material before anything happens to it. Designers can then pick the colours of fibres they want to spin into yarn and can create very complex patterns from yarns that have 2 or 3 different colours within them. This is the very best of the best.
- Pro: The ability to create weaves that are very very intricate above and beyond anything possible with use of the other two methods. This is because designers can make yarn from fibres of several different colours.
- Pro: Yarn can be spun with fibres of different colours or fibres of the same colour, in any event the cast of the dye will be as deep as it is possible to be. We are talking about dying to what is the equivalent of the molecular level. The end result is a fabric that is incredible vibrant, shows great colour at any angle and in any amount of light. The fabric isn’t likely to fade for a very very long time.
- Con: To put it bluntly it’s bl**dy expensive! Resulting in an expensive end fabric price. But you get what you pay for.