Recently, I spent some time at my parents' home. And as it was raining a lot - in that area it rains too much! - I couldn't spend as much time in the garden as planned... What luck, my mother had some old tablecloths she wanted to throw out due to spots and stains which couldn't be washed out anymore! The perfect material for trying out some new batik-techniques!

In this instructables I want to share with you how I "rescued" these old tablecloths.

Step 1: What You Need...

You need:

- old tablecloths (or some other textiles)
- colours for dying fabric + hot water
- salt (depending on your colour - check the instructions on the package!)
- rubber gloves
- plastic bowl (big enough to fit all your fabric in) alternative: washing machine
- rubber bands
- optional: marbles (these balls from glass you used to play with as a kid)
- optional: textil colours (for painting) + s.th. to protect the table you are working on

1-2 hours of free time ;-)

Step 2: How to Do It...

1) prepare your tablecloths!

the batik techniques used:
- single circle: put one marble into the textil and fix it with the rubber band (s. picture)
- multiple circles: put one marble into the textil and fix it with several rounds of rubber band - leaving some space between the single bands
- "stripes": fold a small package from the tablecloth (as if you want to put it into the cupboard - but smaller), roll it up and fix it with several rubber bands.

If you feel like and use a light colour for the batik, you can paint the tablecloth before with textilcolour.

2) dye your fabric following the instructions which come with your colour!

The red tablecloths I did "by hand", mixing the colour with salt and hot water in a big plastic bowl and moving the fabric for around twenty minutes in it (the one with the circles and the more intense colour). The 2nd red one - the one with the "stripes" - I just put in and turned the package 3 or 4 times.
For the blue tablecloths I used the washing machine and did both of them at the same time.

3) Dry the cloths and enjoy ;-)

note: some of the spots are still visible - but they are not as eye-catching as on pure white cloths. Plus, they could be even intended!
But if you want to be sure that you cannot see the spots after dyeing, I would recommend to use as many marbles/patterns as possible... or use faultless fabric from the start!