Old Lace Dyed, Old Friends Revisited

Old Lace Dyed

I inherited this old piece of handwork years ago and just today unearthed it in my stash of laces. It was like finding an old friend and dying it seemed just right--like revisiting and revitalizing relationships with old friends.

I laid out a piece of vintage, cotton lace on a disposable baking pan, lightly diluted liquid Rit Dye concentrate into glass bowls and painted the dye onto the lace with a natural bristle paint brush.

I then place the lace onto the glass plate turntable in the microwave oven...

and set the timer to 1 minute on a high heat setting and repeated the heating process 3 times.

After removing the dyed lace from the microwave oven, it was rinsed thoroughly in clear water until the water ran clear. The final step involved drying the piece with a heat gun (not a hair dryer) to further assure heat setting of color. Special care was taken not to get the heat gun too close to the lace and not to leave it too long in any one area.

I like the lace just as it is but something tells me that it is destined to develop further into a fiber art piece. Time and meanderings of the mind will tell...