fabric dyeing

Dyeing to know what’s missing

Last summer I did quite a bit of dyeing with Drimarene K dyes. I love everything about these dyes except their price tag. I always had excellent results using these dyes.

So this time around I’m trying Procion simply because they’re a fraction of the price. I’m now getting mixed results and am not happy with it all. The colours are strong (I make them strong because I like it that way) but lack the vibrancy of the Drimarene K items I’ve previously done.

I dyed some Stella for the first time this week when I made shorts for the girls. I think I oversaturated and lost definition in the designs. A lesson for next time.

Maybe I’m not combining the right colours? For example, the yellow I have is a golden yellow which is almost an orange – my next order will be for lemon yellow.

Another distorted design and way too mottled for my liking. The good news is the girls think they’re wonderful and want to wear them a lot so all is not lost.

I also made a top for the boy that I dyed with the immersion technique (very carefully) that came up really disappointing. To be specific, it looks like an older and worn top rather than brand new and vibrant. I’ve trawled information to find what may be wrong – the only thing I can think of is the curing temperatures may be a little low as the weather hasn’t really warmed up yet.

I know other dyers get great and vibrant results with Procion, so there must be something amiss with what I’m doing.

Any suggestions?

From scraps to….

by Kelly 3 Comments

Experimenting with dyes and paints is lots of fun but can leave you with a lot of swatches. Being the despiser of waste that I am I’m always trying to come up with ways of using the scraps.

My embroidery scissors had been housed in my needlecase, which was just awful as they were forever falling out.

Ah – much better! If I was going to have a scissors case it needed to be bright so I wouldn’t lose it!

I sewed together bits and pieces of painted and dyed swatches, then practiced my free motion embroidery to make it really interesting.

I love a project that brings together a variety of skills and techniques. I machine embroidered spirals on the front.

And stippled all over the back. Now I think I’m ready to tackle a bigger machine embroidered project!

Rainbow doll

by Kelly 4 Comments

Finally – a new doll for the shop! This one is a little bit special because she has a lot of hand dyed elements.

Her dark purple dress was hand dyed by me (the frill is from some fabric Nic Wood sent me). The silk cape was dyed in the shibori method by me. Her flared pants were hand painted by my son.

Then there is the hair of course. The gorgeous rainbow hand dyed and spun yarn from Nell.

I don’t think I’ll be too sad if this doll doesn’t find a home for Christmas, there are always other possibilities!

Happy swapping

by Kelly 3 Comments

I love a happy swap. You may recall I received some beautiful wool from Nell last week. She has her parcel from me now, so I can show you what I sent. I used a few different techniques for the fat quarters above.

The pink and purple playsilk was painted with stripes and then sprinkled with sea salt (in honour of Nell’s pink and purple princess!)

Nell mentioned water play, so the idea for the blue playsilk was born. The silk was dyed using a shibori technique.

And last but not least – a little play doll for “the baby”, knowing how much my “baby” loves her doll that is similar.

Silk mandala cape

by Kelly 2 Comments

Remember the mandala I dyed last week? Now it’s a children’s cape! It is really gorgeous, I’d love to make more of these.

I intend to make one for each of the girls but as my silk supplies have been somewhat depleted recently it will have to wait.

I used some of my son’s handpainted fabric for the collar and added snaps for doing up.

This one is in my Etsy shop now, custom orders are available too.

Mandala dress

by Kelly 3 Comments

I finished this dress/ long top for my 3 year old today, it was quite a process, but well worth it! First came the dyeing then the sewing, as I wanted separately coloured pieces. I used habotai silk and made up the design as I went along.

The back view is a beautiful turquoise. I love turquoise. The dress sits gorgeously on her and is light and flowing.

I’ll be making these in various sizes for my Etsy shop once I do a little more tweaking. I think they would do well at a market too, which I hope to do eventually. If anyone is interested in pre ordering for Christmas you are most welcome to contact me.

My first mandala woohoo!!

by Kelly 5 Comments

That’s it!
I’m officially moving into my laundry and dedicating my life to making beautiful colours on fabric, you may never see me again except when I have some new colours to show off.
But then I guess someone has to cook, clean, care for the children…….

Ah well, one can dream, can one not?

Giveaway!

by Kelly 32 Comments

Yes it’s that time again and I’m very pleased to be giving away some hand dyed fabric for the first time. The winner will receive a hand painted fat quarter and 2 hand dyed co-ordinating pieces measuring 16 x 16 inches from my skyscape series.

To enter:

1. You need to be a follower. New followers are welcome to enter.

2. Please leave a comment telling me why you like hand dyed fabric and what you think you would do with it if you won.

3. If you blog about this giveaway and link back to here you will receive an additional entry, please come back and leave an extra comment to say you’ve blogged.

The winner will be selected by random integer on Tuesday 5th October.

Thanks for entering, all the best!

Phew, it’s finished!

by Kelly 1 Comment

You know how some projects just drag on and on, you lose your enthusiasm or don’t have the tools you need?

I started this cover for my A4 size art journal yonks ago, I don’t even remember when. I really liked these fabrics from a Crafty Mamas swap with Carolyn so I wanted to use them to make something I would be seeing often.

I started out hand quilting but realised it was going to take me forever (those who hand quilt entire quilts now have my utmost admiration!) so I bought a free motion foot for my sewing machine and made this my guinea pig. It took a while to get used to and I still need practice. Youtube was a big help, except when I saw that 4 year old girl machine quilting like a pro, then I felt really embarassed!

My son has been having a go at fabric painting and has had some fantastic results! Here are a couple of his first swatches.

He’s looking forward to doing lots more.

Ok, that’s all from me for now, I have to get back to baking that lemon curd tart I started. I want to say thank you to those who commented on my last post – all very helpful and constructive advice.

Watch out for a giveaway here in the very near future.

Hand painted doilies

by Kelly 6 Comments

Like many avid crafters I’m fairly fond of the old doily. I had a few op shop doilies in my stash and thought it was time to do something with them, then the idea of adding colour, lots of colour, struck me!

I used my Liquid Radiance paints and it was all pretty simple really.

The paints can be strategically placed without too much bleeding. I’m thinking these ones need to be put on cushions, perhaps even wall art?

Now I have to go op shopping and hunt down some more doilies, anyone interested in a tutorial?

My husband is home today and I had a great morning with my 3 year old girl. We went and had babycinos and looked through the pet and toy shop. It’s so enjoyable to have one child on their own and to focus on them and appreciate their unique personality. We always stress the importance of one on one time with each child, particularly for larger families. It may not be easy to arrange but it is so worth doing, you create individual memories for that child and renew your personal bond with them.

Have a nice day, God bless!