HOW DO DIFFERENT COTTON FABRICS EFFECT THE RESULTING DYE COLOURS?

I decided to test my usual two brands of cotton fabric, against other cotton fabrics found in the market, to see which dyes best and how big a difference the fabric actually makes to the end result.  

Into the same dye bath I put fat eighths of:

• Cotton Oxford (THB200)
• Cotton voile (THB180)
• Regular cotton (THB60)
• Cotton Sateen (THB150)
• Very cheap and loosely woven cotton (THB30 - that says it all!)
• My usual cotton (THB70)
• A heavy cotton that I also use (THB70)
• Jute (what the heck, I was interested to see how it would dye)  (THB90)
• Beige cotton with a raised texture (THB90)

All the fabric was sold to me as 100% cotton except the jute.  I also added a couple of other bits of spare cotton and linen I had, just to see how they would dye.  I can't replace the fabric, so it wasn't really part of the experiment.

The results were quite different from what I imagined.  You can see the first batch I dyed above.  They were all in the same dye bath.  I sorted them into piles that I considered had the same overall colour.
The jute dyed REALLY beautifully in this particular dye bath (see bottom middle).  However, having never really used jute before, I was put off from using it again because of the amount of fibre it shed and the smell of it, which wasn't unpleasant, just strong.  Surprisingly the cotton voile also took the dye well (below left).  In terms of fabric that I would really use though, the cotton at THB60 (below right) and my regular THB70 also dyed really well.

Another fabric that took the dye better than I had expected was the beige fabric with the raised texture.  This isn't the sort of fabric I would usually use, so this more out of interest than anything else.  This photo is deceptive as the colour looks stronger than the fabrics above, but it isn't, it is just a tad lighter (and don't ask me to define tad!).

The least successful in terms of dye absorption were the cheap THB30 cotton (bottom right) and the cotton Oxford (middle).  You can see the difference in colour when compared to the THB60 cotton (left).  I was surprised that the Oxford took the dye so weakly.  I was assured that it was 100% cotton, so my only assumption is that it may have a finish on it that didn't wash off when I pre-washed the fabric.  Not an unpleasant colour, but nothing like I had planned on it being.

The sateen dyed better than the Oxford and the heavier cotton I sometimes use, dyed better than that.  

I did the same experiment  with a blue/black dye mix, using the same fabrics.  This was a little more difficult to judge as I had not manipulated the fabric a lot on the dye bath, so got more of a scrunched look.

The results was almost identical to the orange dye bath.  The jute took the dye the best.  As before the voile and cotton fabrics THB60 & 70, were the best absorbers of the dye.

Below are the three weakest absorbers of the dye, which again replicated the first experiment with the THB30 the weakest, followed by the Oxford and sateen, which can be seen below next to one of the THB70 cotton

I found the difference between the cheap cotton and the voile interesting too.  Both are very fine and loosely woven, so I expected them to get similar results.  I have a feeling that the cheap cotton may have had something else in it as the dye isn't absorbed unilaterally across the fibres.  However, it is an interesting effect.

Overall the results were almost the same across both dye baths.  It is difficult to see the colour/value variances in the photos and for the middle values, there wasn't a huge amount of difference in it.

       Orange Results                               Blue Results

• jute                                               jute
• cotton voile                                   cotton voile/cotton THB60 &70
• cotton THB60&70/beige fabric      heavy cotton/beige
• heavy cotton                                 sateen
• cotton sateen                                 Oxford
• cotton Oxford                               cotton THB30
• cotton THB30

The benefit of this experiment is basically to tell me whether I am getting the best from my dye and fabric.  A couple of the fabrics are ones that I would not normally use, such as the voile, but it is still interesting to see how they take the dye.  If you plan on doing this yourself, I'd leave out the jute unless you plan on using it in your work.  The mess is unbelievable and it frays like anything.

Overall, I find I might was well stick to my regular THB70 fabric and the next time I fabric shop, buy the THB60.   Given that I usually but 30 meters at a time, I'll net an extra 5 meters for the same result.  Perfect!