A few years ago I made the decision to sort my fabrics by color and value and put them all out on a table in the studio. The table was near a window so I carefully covered the window (I thought) to block the sun but after a couple of months I discovered a tiny beam of light that I had missed and that little beam had caused fading on some of my fabric.
I should have pulled and over-dyed the damaged fabrics right then but I kept thinking I would be able to use the unfaded parts. Ha! Those pieces of fabric just keep popping up and disappointing me because the usable parts are never large enough.
Of course I took the fabric off the table and now have it stored in crates away from the sun. This week I began constructing a new piece using a somewhat different color palette and I have found a number of fabrics that are faded on all folds. This seems strange to me. I don't think these are victims of my display experiment. If not, what's going on?
I have not as yet taken all my fabric out of the crates to inspect everything but I do have a feeling it is only certain colors.
- So here are my questions and if you have had experience with this issue I'd love to hear from you.
- Is it normal for specific colors to fade even when not exposed to bright light?
- Are you aware of dye colors that are more fugitive than others?
- Is there any relationship to the fading and the fold other than possible exterior exposure?
I did over-dye a couple of the problem pieces and I can see from that attempt that I will need to dye the fabrics a deeper shade than they were before the fading in order to get good coverage. The good news is that some of the most beautiful fabrics I've ever made were over-dyed so I'm trying to look at this as an opportunity.
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