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Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring yet practical
Review: Fabric dyeing is one of those things that appeals to our primitive finger-painting urges. It's messy, colorful, and very satisfying. Vimala McClure's book for beginners, which grew originally from a popular magazine article, is just the ticket if you've been contemplating giving this a try. McClure approaches the somewhat daunting prospect of chemicals, rubber gloves, and stained sinks with enthusiasm, but also with practical sense. She knows that busy women need ways to fit these processes into their other responsibilities, and so breaks the processes up into small, manageable pieces that can be done over several days. Several different dyeing techniques are explored, including pickle-jar, fabric-fold, tie-dye, and stencil methods. The technical details are nicely balanced by photos of many styles of quilts that make us of hand-dyed fabrics.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference for beginner
Review: This book is an excellent reference for beginners. It treats the subject like a cookbook, walking you step by step through each "recipe" so you can proceed with confidence. I especially recommend this book for quilters and stitchers who want to know enough to get the desired results for their projects without drowning in more information than they need.
Rating:
Summary: Great for 1st time dyers & those looking for a refresher
Review: This is a terrific new book on dyeing fabric. If you've ever thought about trying to dye your own fabric but were afraid of the mess or complicated steps involved, read this book and try out the recipes. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy, fun, and relatively mess-free it can be. Vimala gives clear, step-by-step info on "pickle dyeing" in small quantities and with a minimum of space and mess, as well as info on tie dyeing, stencilling, and fold dyeing. The steps are well illustrated and several samples of each technique are shown. In addition, a gallery of Vimala's quilts, which use fabrics she's created, is in the back of the book. I'll admit to being biased. I made two of the samples used in the book - it was great fun having a chance to play with Vimala's fabrics and dream up ways to show them off. Also, I own two of Vimala's quilts. The fabrics she created for those quilts is splendiferous as are the quilts themselves (Sarasvati is one of the most amazing pieces of artwork I've seen). One of the methods I've used for dyeing my own fabric is a variation on Vimala's pickle dyeing. Even though I'm an experienced dyer, I plan on spending some time going through the recipes in the book and "cooking up" some fabrics using the techniques Vimala beautifully describes. While I don't expect to abandon my Ann Johnston books on dyeing, this book certainly can share the shelf with them.
Rating:
Summary: Great for 1st time dyers & those looking for a refresher
Review: This is a terrific new book on dyeing fabric. If you've ever thought about trying to dye your own fabric but were afraid of the mess or complicated steps involved, read this book and try out the recipes. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy, fun, and relatively mess-free it can be. Vimala gives clear, step-by-step info on "pickle dyeing" in small quantities and with a minimum of space and mess, as well as info on tie dyeing, stencilling, and fold dyeing. The steps are well illustrated and several samples of each technique are shown. In addition, a gallery of Vimala's quilts, which use fabrics she's created, is in the back of the book. I'll admit to being biased. I made two of the samples used in the book - it was great fun having a chance to play with Vimala's fabrics and dream up ways to show them off. Also, I own two of Vimala's quilts. The fabrics she created for those quilts is splendiferous as are the quilts themselves (Sarasvati is one of the most amazing pieces of artwork I've seen). One of the methods I've used for dyeing my own fabric is a variation on Vimala's pickle dyeing. Even though I'm an experienced dyer, I plan on spending some time going through the recipes in the book and "cooking up" some fabrics using the techniques Vimala beautifully describes. While I don't expect to abandon my Ann Johnston books on dyeing, this book certainly can share the shelf with them.
Rating:
Summary: Something New, and not necessarily just for beginners
Review: This is such a great new approach to dyeing. I recommend this book for dyeing beginners as well as the experienced dyer. There are actually new things to learn out there, and a lot of them are in this book.
The instructions are clear and the illustrations are useful as well as beautiful. There are great examples of quilt blocks using the different types of fabrics, as well as completed quilts. That is very helpful, and has sparked a lot of new ideas for me (no more, what do I do with this?)
What I really liked about this book was the illustrated folding techniques, which are used to achieve incredibly complex surface designs with minimal effort. That is the key for a lot of people I think *minimal effort*, this is a low-tech, simple way to dye your own fabrics.
Another part of the book which is so important in my opinion, is the emphasis on safety while dyeing. A lot of the other books out there geared towards beginners do not go into enough detail on easy ways to be safe while dyeing.
If you're tired of paying big $$ for hand-dyes, then you need to buy this book and see how easy it is to get the results that you want.
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