Home Made Steamer

There are many ways (this is generally true of every process or technique) of heat setting fabric printed or painted with Procion MX dye. I’ve included some links at the end of this post for other ways of making a steamer, steaming or heat setting fabric.
This method works for up to two yards of fabric or several smaller bundles. Really, however many bundles you can fit into the pot loosely.

These are wrapped fabric bundles after steaming.

The first step is wrapping your fabric. Start with a bottom layer of blank newsprint, paper toweling, old sheets, or brown paper bags. This layer should be three or four inches larger than the fabric you are going to steam.

Lay your fabric on top of the bottom layer and cover with another layer of what ever you used on the bottom.

Roll all three layers together loosely. Steaming will set in creases, so do this gently. (If you have room in the pot, you can roll the bundle around something, like an empty, paper towel roll.)

Fold your roll into a bundle and tie or rubber band.

The Steam Pots

I use two pots to steam, kind of like a water bath or bain marie in cooking. I found a huge lobster steamer at Wal-Mart for a reasonable price. Look around at thrift stores or used restaurant supply stores for the largest pot (may be called a stock pot), you can find.

The second pot should fit inside of the big pot.

Line your second, smaller pot with old newspapers (yes newspaper does still exist). Place your wrapped bundles in this pot. Cover with a layer of balled up newspaper, or save the wrapping from previous bundles and ball that up. Cover the whole thing with a thick layer of newspaper. (If you don’t have newspapers around check out the 7/11 or other stores for newspapers being thrown out or returned to a vendor.)

This is the small pot lined with newspaper.

Fill the larger pot with water. The amount of water should not be so high that it will boil over into the smaller pot, but also will not boil out during the 15 to 30 minutes of steaming. (My smaller pot floats in the larger lobster pot once I add about four inches of water.)

After adding water put the small pot inside the larger pot. Place another thick layer of newspaper over the top of the large pot. Trim this if you are obsessive. If not, cover tightly with foil. Do not cover the small pot. Put on the stovetop or a heavy-duty hot plate, bring to a boil, turn down to a good simmer and steam for 15 to 30 minutes.

Large pot after steaming. The layer of newspaper has absorbed all of the moisture from steaming. This layer keep the steam condensation from dripping onto your fabric bundles.

(Pro Chemical suggests steaming for 15 minutes. Using two pots is not an open steaming method. The extra time insures that the steam, as well as the heat reaches the bundles in the bottom of the smaller pot.)

Turn off the heat. Just leave the whole thing for a half an hour or so. Everything will be extremely hot. Don't be alarmed if there is an ammonia-like smell. The smell is from the chemical reaction taking place.

Foil covered large pot.

Once your bundles have cooled down, remove the wrappings. Have a pan of cold water ready and begin the first of three rinsings in cold water, or until the rinse water runs clear. A final (or more) rinse in hot water with Synthrapol or a few drops of Tide 2X and you’re finished.

First cold water rinse. You can see that the dye has been exhausted, because the water is almost clear.

Notes: Sodium alginate used to thicken the dye and form a print paste also helps keep the dye from migrating during the steaming process.

Plunging all of the fabric into the first cold water rinse is important for controlling dye run off, especially with lighter colored fabric. If you’ve prepared your dye paste and fabric correctly and steamed long enough all of the dye should be exhausted and successfully bonded with the fabric. Excessive dye run off means something is wrong.

Fiber reactive dyes form a chemical bond with plant and protein fabrics. The steam setting is where the reaction takes place.

Fabric, steamed, rinsed and hanging outside on the line to dry. Success!

To make you feel better: I have burned fabric during the steaming process; and ruined yards of silk with dye run off after steaming. Start with a piece of fabric that you don’t love, keep notes and don’t let what may seem like errors deter you. Though burned fabric is hard to get over.

If you are stenciling, some heat setting will take place every time you iron a stencil on to the fabric. This is a bonus.

This piece will now be stenciled again, discharged, rinsed, and hand painted.

Resources:

Steaming - G&S Dye

Painting and Print Applications - Pro Chemical

Building Your Own Stove Top Steamer - Dharma Trading

Useful Tools for Steam Setting  - Paula Burch

Silk Screen Printing and Hand Painting - Jacquard

How to Build a Cheap Fabric Steamer - Sunny Jim

Vertical Steamer - Jacquard