After dyeing, rinse thoroughly in cold water, drain the water out on an old towel or sheet and hang it on a waxed line or cord to dry. It is best to wax the line so that the line does not tear off the wax on the cloth where it is pinned up.
The remaining problem of dyeing is the most interesting of all, viz.: the effect of one dye on another, and of dyeing one color over or on top of the preceding color.
In this “top dyeing,” we must remember that the final color will be the combination of the color already on the material and the dye color which is being added. If we have a brilliant yellow scarf, we cannot dye it a blue unless in some way we can remove the yellow, but we can dye it any color of which yellow forms a part, such as orange, orange red, mahogany, green of all kinds, browns, greys, and black. All these colors contain yellow and can be dyed over yellow by adding the other colors which make the desired combination. A pale yellow can be neutralized by dyeing with weak magenta and then dyeing blue.
A Window Curtain decorated in Batik. Designed and executed by soldiers in the Commercial Art Class at U. S. General Hospital No. 2, under the direction of Lieutenant Jean Paul Slusser
Javanese Batiks. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum, New York
For instance, to make a medium grey green over a yellow, both blue and red must be added, the blue making green when dyed over yellow and a little red making the color grey. In dyeing a strong color over a weak and greyish color the original color will seem to have very little effect.