Video: Day in the Life, Creating Fashion

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — Design is her passion, and teaching is her life. The nationally acclaimed award winner and former Fullbright Scholar spends her days, helping Mississippi State students tap into their creative sides. When it comes to dyeing fabrics, Phyllis says that their is a scientific method to achieving a perfect shade of color.

“What I am trying to do is teach students the professional way of dyeing. We’ve all seen how its done at day camp and vacation Bible school where they throw everything into the pot and hope for the best.We’re trying to get away from that. So, what we are actually doing is using the scientific method that is used by the Pro Chemical and Dye Company in Massachusetts. This is proof that all of these colors in this book are created by using three primary colors. Instead of mixing by volume, where you are measuring by teaspoons and tablespoons, we’re doing it by weight so this is why we have the cylinders so we can use milliliters, and the scales so we are actually weighing the dye powder,” explains Miller.

The advanced students spent the night before class, doing just that. When they finished mixing, weighing and experiment, the dyes were ready to be used. The fabric of choice for this demonstration is the absorbent and light weight classic, cotton.

After coating the cotton scarf in a liquid soda ash solution, and folding it into a pleat, it was time to get started. We placed the cotton scarf in the bottom of a container, where we coated the fabric in three different shades of dye.

“We will leave this to set for 20 minutes. Then we put it in the microwave for approximately 60 seconds, or until it reaches 140 degrees.”
Then rinse and wash, and this is your final result is one bright and cheery scarf.

Phyllis says incorporating these exercises helps students better prepare for the working world.

“The more they know and control, the better jobs they will actually be able to get,” concludes Miller.

For Phyllis Miller, helping pass on a wealth of knowledge so they can dress in success is just one more day in the life.