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How To Make Indigo Dyed Curtains

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See how to make diy shibori curtains with this picture tutorial! Indigo dye shibori is a beautiful cobination and these diy curtains look organic and airy.

I made indigo shibori curtains!! I wish I had some before pictures, but you’ll have to trust me, I convinced myself and my husband that hot pink walls would be fun in our bedroom (while I was pregnant). After I’d had the baby and regained my sanity, I realized I was not a fan and we switched to a clean, crisp white! I had already bought white curtains, which was a little too monochromatic. I’d been experimenting with indigo dye already (Be sure to check out my full review of my favorite indigo dye kit in this post!) so I decided to try my hand at diy shibori indigo curtains!

100% honesty, these didn’t turn out how I had envisioned. But, I learned a lot and thought I’d share since I couldn’t find any perfect tutorials online when I started looking. I like the pop of color they give my wall, and that they’re imbued with happy memories of making them with my friend! Hopefully this can give you some things to consider if you want to try it yourself.

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It is basically impossible to get a picture of both curtains because of the way my room is arranged; I love how they look drawn open.

Spread out, you can see where some of my trouble came in. I’ll share details in the ‘steps’ below, but I ended up re-folding and redipping, creating some odd extra lines. Too much oxygen in my indigo vat made for a not-so-potent dye, and the middle of the design got faded out a little bit. Little unique quirks that come with the hand dyeing process!

Ready to make your own?

How to make shibori indigo dyed curtains

Supplies

  • Set of white cotton (or other natural fiber) curtains – I love this set from IKEA/! Prewash them!
  • Indigo kit
  • (2) Plywood cut in a right triangle with 12″ short sides
  • Wood clamps*
  • Shallow/long plastic bin (NOT a 5 gallon bucket!)

Steps

1- I played with folding techniques, and decided that folded length-wise, finished edges in the middle made the most sense, do that. Now would be a good time to start your indigo dye bath, it has to sit for a while before you use it.

2- Fold them in half length-wise again and try to make sure everything is as even and symmetric as possible. Put your triangle down and use it as a folding board, keeping creases tight.

3- Tuck any spare fabric under/inside, and put one triangle on each end, close with a clamp and tighten. You want to push out as much air as possible, when it gets into the dye bath it dilutes it! Now would also be a good time to get it soaking wet so the dye spreads more easily.

4- Dye time! Leave it to set for a while, repeat for each side, repeat for the second curtain. Re-dip for more saturated colors, un-clamp, lay out while it turns from green to blue. If desired, you can unwrap it and then quickly dip it in for a wash of blue all over. Wash, and enjoy!

Above, you can see that happened on the left when I tried to use a bucket (also pictured below); it wasn’t deep/wide enough to properly reach the long edges. I used a paintbrush to saturate the edges, but it wasn’t enough to penetrate through all the layers. I re-wrapped and redid it with the above step 5, so if you follow my steps you won’t have this problem, but wanted to give a visual of what happens!

A few of my blogging friends have joined in for a week of Shibori Dyeing! Order your own kit* on Amazon and be sure to click through and see what they made:

Shibori Week

7/24

Stephanie at Swoodson Says – Shibori Kit Review

7/25

Sara at Radiant Home Studio – Shibori Zipper Pouch

7/26

Vicky at Vicky Myers Creations – Shibori Scarf

Stephanie at Swoodson Says – Shibori Blanket

7/27

Maryanna at Marvelous Auntie M – Shibori Bag

Ula at Lulu & Celester – Shibori Clutch

7/28

Laurel at My Heart Will Sew On – Shibori Maxi Skirt

Agy at Agy Textile Artist – Shibori Natural Dyes

See how to make diy shibori curtains with this picture tutorial! Indigo dye shibori is a beautiful cobination and these diy curtains look organic and airy.

 

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Whitney

Tuesday 11th of May 2021

Did you leave a wooden triangle inthe middle of the fabric after you folded, or are the boards only on the outsides?

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Tuesday 11th of May 2021

No, I didn't, the boards are only on the outsides.

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