Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

fabric dyeing

Random creativity

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I thought I’d share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)
A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.
And a little photography.
Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.
How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?

We survived – we even thrived a little!

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The first day back homeschooling was the stuff of nightmares as I dealt with children who had forgotten how to be good students! Thankfully, it got progressively better as the week continued and now we’re well and truly back into a good routine.
I even got a little time to sew and dye.
Little Miss 3.5 has been asking for one of my twirly circle skirts for some time. I received the cotton lawn I’d been waiting on and once she saw the roll there were no more excuses!
In her favourite colours – purple and pink. I think she likes it!
This one is an elasticated A – line that I dyed in a spiral.
It’s destined for my Etsy shop.
I love the summery colours!
It’s so rewarding to be able to make clothes from scratch.

New goodies in the shop

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Hand dyed rosette brooch
I’ve been very busy this morning with these new listings for my Etsy shop. I sort of wish I could skip the whole listing part and just get on with the creating part!
Hand dyed circle skirt to fit 3 year old

Remember the bright shibori dyed fabric? Now it’s a skirt.

Hand dyed reversible cotton scarf

           This is pretty cool – a reversible scarf. One side is bright.

Hand dyed reversible cotton scarf

                        The other is dark.

                        Do you like?

Now that grabs your attention!

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I’ve been experimenting with the shibori technique which is really fun and interesting. I was quite surprised when I unwrapped this yesterday after leaving it for hours in plastic in the hot baking sun.
I didn’t exactly get the fine lines I wanted but it certainly doesn’t lack for brightness! I’ll see how it looks as a skirt.

Handmade gifts

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I haven’t done too well with the handmade gifts this year, but I almost always make something for the girls. Usually it’s a doll or soft toy but I think they have plenty of those now!

So I made up some silk pillowcases and dyed them. This one is for my 5 year old who loves pink.
And this one for my 3 year old who loves yellow and pink. These are so nice to lie on, I think I’ll be getting requests from other family members when they see these!
What is that?!! you may be thinking. My first thought when I rinsed this out was “oh crap!” The story behind it: I wanted to buy some cotton lawn to make more circle skirts – the “major Australian craft retailer” I went to had run out so the sales assistant suggested using voile (assuring me it was 100% cotton), which I hadn’t used before. I cut out 3 skirts and spent.. ahem!.. quite a bit of time tyeing and dyeing them. Nearly all the colour washed out. The pillowcases were in the same dye batch, so I know it’s the fabric that’s the problem.
When I was having a whinge to my husband about it lastnight his response was “they told you it was 100% cotton and you believed it?” I have history with this retailer. Note to self – don’t trust a sales assistant who likely knows a lot less than I do!
You win some, you lose some.

Hand dyed top for the boy

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I don’t sew all that much for the boy – It’s not like you can make a 10 year old boy the cute little outfits you could have when they were little. I do like to make his basic pants and things though.
The pattern is Jalie 2918 which I have also used for my husband with excellent results. I started with white Stella and dyed it what I thought would be a sky blue. It came out awfully light and washed out which I now realise was probably due to a too low temperature in the mixing and curing.
I gave it another go with cobalt blue and better temperatures and it came out perfect! I love this colour on my blue eyed boy.

Finished and well received!

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I’m happy to say I did finish the needle books in time for stitching group lastnight. It’s surprising how long it takes to hand paint, free motion quilt, then sew up one of these. Well worth the effort though – the stitching ladies loved them!

The interiors have a contrast fabric, a wool felt pocket and sheet of wool felt for the needles. They fasten with snaps.

So, this afternoon I’ll attempt to continue working on a skirt for me that has involved a little too much unpicking for my liking! Then there are those cushion covers to be made up, the top to be re – dyed, the baby gowns I really should get to, the multitude of embroideries to choose from………….

I should mention that I’ll be running my Christmas giveaway very soon so stay tuned šŸ™‚