Dyeing Dollar Store Cotton Twine with Acrylic Paints

I've recently gotten into macramé but didn't want to spend tons of money on expensive hemp while I was still in a learning curve. I found a soft, 7-strand cotton twine at my local Dollar Tree but soon became bored with the natural color.

I decided to dye the cotton twine different colors. I have lots of Rit dyes but thought that would take too much time. I considered Adirondack alcohol inks because they are permanent on fabric but thought I would need too much of this expensive product. So I decided to use acrylic paints which are cheap and are also permanent on fabric once they are dry.

I mixed several colors of acrylic paint (multiple brands) and water in a 50/50 mix in recycled plastic takeout containers. I used several shades of each color (including glitter colors) to get a variegated look. I also swirled some different colors together. I cut the cotton twine in 10 yard pieces (30 feet), wound them and then tied them loosely around the middle to avoid tangles.

I left multiple bundles of cotton twine soaking in each container of acrylic paint / water mix for several hours to allow the color to seep into the twine. Each bundle was then lightly squeezed to remove excess moisture and left to dry in the sun. It took a full 24 hours for all bundles to completely dry.

The results were better than expected. Most of the colors were softer than the original acrylic colors but were still bright. The midnight black did become grayish black. The original cotton twine was very soft and did not look very distinctive once macraméd. The colored cotton twine was slightly stiffer which made it much easier to work with and more distinctive looking when macraméd. The slight stiffness is because acrylic paint binds the fibers together. Best of all was that even after coloring the twine is still soft on the skin.

The bracelet below was made with cotton twine colored with a swirled red, yellow and orange acrylic paint mix.

Below are some of the other colors I dyed. I did not edit the original pictures so you could get an accurate idea of the colors attained with acrylic paint dyeing.