How to Dye Rugs, How to Make Dye

What housewife has not looked at a pile of stockings too worn for darning, or wool underwear in the same condition, and thought with regret that so much of an investment must be thrown away? But it need not be. These and all other old worn things - suits that belonged to the man of the house and have passed from active business life through a hard season of after-business gardening and are not fit to give away, old shirts, velvets too worn for steaming, discarded neckties, hopeless sheets and pillow cases - all will make wonderful rugs.

First the material to be dyed must be collected. The best way to do this is to keep separate bags for wool, silk, and cotton. It will save future sorting when the dyeing begins. For all these derelicts must be dyed so that a rug of harmonious colors will result, and one that will fit the color scheme of the room that has needed a new rug so long.

The cotton-bag is the easiest one, because most of its contents will be white stuffs - muslin underwear, sheets, and other household linens. These can all go into the dye-pot just as they are and be dyed a lovely gray-green or dull blue for the bathroom mats. Save out some for white bands or borders. Or even make the bathroom rugs of the white rags with a little color on the border. They are easily washed, and if not too large will not be too heavy for the home laundry. Where the children run in and out with shoes that are not always clean, such a rug would be a mistake, but where there are only grown-ups or the children are old enough to be careful, they are practical as well as attractive. .

Of course, if the underwear is closely gathered in places, it is better to cut this part open before dyeing, so that the color will penetrate easily. But it is not necessary to strive for even dyeing. Indeed, a much more pleasing rug is the result if the color has taken unevenly. Any of the package dyes will give satisfactory results if the directions are carefully followed.

The dark-cotton materials and the black stockings have their renascence in a hit-and-miss rug with black border. There are several kinds of rag rugs, but all require material cut in strips about a half-inch wide. Satisfactory woven rugs can be made of strips as wide as an inch, but they are not so smooth as those woven of narrower strips.

Every woman knows the woven rugs our great-grandmothers made on their looms. But does she know that there are institutions and schools where they would be glad to weave her material into rugs like them, and for a very small sum, perhaps just enough to cover the cost of the warp which they would furnish? The superintendent of schools or the public library can often furnish addresses of schools or institutions where such work is done. If there is nothing of the kind in the district, one or the other would no doubt gladly get the address of the nearest place where the work may be sent. Parcel post makes the exchange of materials cheap and easy. But it is possible to make the whole rug at home. The next chapters tell about three ways of doing it.

All soiled pieces must be washed before dyeing. If garments have cotton linings they should be ripped out. All the light materials should be kept apart from the dark, so that they may be dyed the lighter colors. Dark goods can be dyed darker only unless they are first put through a bleaching process.

But before attempting to bleach any goods that has been worn, boil it with plenty of mild soap to free the grease and dirt. Then prepare a bleaching bath by adding one-tenth of an ounce of chloride of lime to every gallon of water. There should be enough water to cover the material. Chloride of lime is a white powder that can be bought from any druggist. Before immersing the goods be sure that all the powder is dissolved (heating the water will hasten that) and after immersing be sure that all the material remains covered. When the goods are bleaching the temperature of the water should be kept at about 1000 Fahr., never higher. The time to leave them in varies from one-half hour to an hour, or even more, depending on the tenacity of the dye in the stuffs. One can easily see whether the color has all been discharged. The bleached stuff will be a muddy gray.

While this process is going on the next bath, or after-treatment, may be got ready. Add one and one-half ounces of concentrated hydrochloric acid (also called muriatic acid) to each gallon of water. Follow the bleaching with an immersion in this acid bath, leaving the goods in until no odor of chlorine remains, usually about fifteen minutes. This stops the action of the chlorine, which would otherwise attack the fiber after the dye was all removed. The stuff is then run through a third bath, made by adding two-fifths of an ounce of sodium hyposulphite to each gallon of water, in order to rid the material of any trace of chlorine. If there were some pieces that would not bleach as gray as the rest with chlorine, their color will be reduced in the "hypo" bath. Fabrics to-day are dyed with a variety of chemical dyes, some of which yield more readily to one bleaching treatment and some to another. It is, however, not possible to sort out the different kinds, so all the goods must go through the two bleaching baths. After the sodium hyposulphite treatment, the material should be boiled in a soap solution made by allowing one-half an ounce of mild soap to each gallon of water. The material should remain in about fifteen minutes, then be rinsed, and either dried or put right into the dye bath

Besides the commercial package dyes that can be got at every drug-store there are dyes that are marketed in bulk, most of them in powder form, and sold by the pound. They are not so commonly kept in stock as the package kind, but the druggist should be able to order them, on the request of a customer, from the large Eastern dealers handling dyes tuffs.

Among the several classes of these dyes there are two for which the home dyer would have the most use - i.e., the direct cotton dyes or salt colors, as they are also called, and acid dyes. The latter are for silk and wool. The former dye linen as well as cotton. With a pound of red, blue, and yellow from each of these two classes, the home dye-shelf will be well stocked with dye. In addition to the color there should also be a bag of common table salt, and a pint of dilute sulphuric acid. Have the druggist make up a 40 percent, solution rather than keep the concentrated form on the shelf. The latter produces painful burns that take a long time to heal, and accidents might occur with it.

A good plan is to dissolve an eighth of a pound of each dye powder in a two-quart bottle of water and use from this when doing the dyeing. To complete the equipment for home dyeing there should be at least two tubs, one for the dye bath and the other for rinsing - three or four round sticks about twenty inches long for lifting and stirring the goods in the bath, and a stove. It would be an economy to have also two large dishpans and two smaller pans for small-quantity dyeing. The laundry is a good place to work if there is light enough, and the use of a wringer is a convenience, though it is not a necessity. The dye can be got off of the rubber rollers with sand soap. A pair of rubber gloves may be considered a necessity by some, but they are extremely awkward to work in. Either a clothes-horse or a line will answer for drying purposes. If the dye and small portable equipment are all kept together, many a fabric can be dyed just the required color or shade without much work, and one gets lots of fun out of doing it.

There are a few general directions that apply to the use of both kinds of dye. The material to be dyed must be clean and well wetted before going into the dye-pot. There should be enough dye liquor to completely cover the immersed goods, and while the latter are in they should be kept moving in order to prevent doubling into folds that would not allow the dye to penetrate evenly, and to prevent some parts from settling on the bottom of the pot and getting too hot.

The amount of dye to use depends upon how full and deep a shade is wanted. It is always safe to start with a weak bath and add more color if needed. Be sure to remove the material before adding the color, and then stir the bath well before returning the goods to it.

To dye cotton goods with the salt dyes mentioned above, start the water for the bath heating, and in the mean time strain the dye from the stock bottle, if even dyeing is desired, through a cheese-cloth. Add the dye to the water, and when the bath is hot immerse the wetted cotton in it and stir. If only a light shade is required leave the stuff in until the color is obtained, but if dyeing for a dark color, table salt (one-half cupful to every gallon of water) should be added to the bath and the goods boiled at least twenty minutes. After the dyeing is complete the goods need only be rinsed in cold water, shaken out, and dried.

All the velvet, as well as silk and wool pieces, may be dyed in a bath made with the other class of colors, the acid dyes. Velveteen is a cotton stuff and must be sorted from the velvets and go into the first-described dye-pot.

Into the water for the acid bath pour the dye from the stock bottle, and for each gallon of water add a teaspoonful of the 40 percent solution of sulphuric acid. Stir the bath well to mix the ingredients and then immerse the wetted goods. Allow it to heat slowly, but never boil.

During the heating stir and change the position of the material constantly until it is the shade desired. Then rinse free every trace of acid, and the goods are ready to be dried. The acid is added in the first place to assist the dye in uniting with the fiber of the material.

The three cotton dyes may be mixed to produce other colors, and so may the three acid dyes, but the two classes do not mix. To make green mix the blue and yellow. The dominance of one or the other will make the green either a blue-green or a yellow-green. Red and yellow will make orange, and red and blue violet. In order to dull the color resulting from any of these combinations, add just a very little of the third color; for instance, to make a dull orange add a little blue to the red and yellow - not too much, though, else brown will be the result. If one of the original three colors needs dulling add just a little of each of the other two.

In this way, out of red, blue, and yellow, one can get a whole gamut of color. Most of the package and tube dyes may be mixed to get other colors. When mixing the latter it is safest to mix only the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. It is not necessary to do all the dyeing at one time. Not even all the material that is to be dyed the same color need be done in one operation. If dye liquor is left over it can be saved, so the process is neither long and tiring nor time-consuming.

Sharp contrasts of dark and light or brilliant and dull color should be avoided in a rug. Rugs containing them seem to leap up from the floor, A lovely rug was woven entirely of old velvet. It was six feet long and nearly four feet wide. The ends, for just a little over a foot, were striped, starting with a very deep green-blue about three inches wide at the ends, and from there varying in bands of different hues of blue, with an occasional streak of green until the body part was reached. This body was a dull green-blue somewhat lighter than the bands at the ends.

The warp of the rug was mercerized cotton dyed a full brilliant green. It gave a sparkle of, color over the entire rug and "drew together" the blue and green of the weave. As much of the original material was dark, it was bleached and then dyed to the right green or blue.

Another velvet rug somewhat livelier in color was planned for a room that got very little sunlight. So the pieces of velvet were dyed orange a deep, dull orange for the larger mass, with all hues and shades of orange for stripes. In weaving this rug care was taken to avoid having the light stripes of rose-orange and yellow-orange come next to a stripe of the darkest color. The gradations of hue and tone were most gradual.

The warp was mercerized cotton dyed in the same bath with the middle tone of orange used in the weaving. The material for that color was an old velveteen sport skirt, a cotton material, so, of course, the same kind of dye would do. To fasten the warp ends they were knotted in with the five-inch-deep fringe that finished the rug.

Just a word about warp for these rugs. Mercerized cotton is quite as strong as linen of the same size and much cheaper. The chemical process of mercerizing gives the cotton additional strength, and its soft luster adds life to the appearance of the textile. It must, however, be of good quality and strong, as when the warp gives way the rug is gone.

Continue: Make Braided Rugs.