Look what happens when you take down the old shades (never throw them away)

Pulling down the shades in my daughters old room, I looked at the fibers closely and thought “What if?”

So I poured on the soda ash and sprinkled on the dye.

I took it all apart ripped out the threads holding them together and voila!

Does this say grass to you? Does anyone know what kind of fiber this might be?

My first “teaching” experience!

I got there early even though it was almost a blizzard. A dear friend helped me carry in the stuff and set up. She did the ironing while I hung the quilts. A bit nervous, but I was ready to go.
With 15 people eagerly sitting in front of me I began my presentation. Carefully placing the fabric under the presser foot I pushed on the pedal with my socked foot and nothing. Nothing!
My footpedal had shorted out in the bitter cold. Another “QUICK JEAN THINK FAST” moment. I carefully demonstrated with the presser foot off the machine and on the fabric and the table and it went Great I had a blast! Here is the culprit!

Hand dyeing fabric in the winter

Well what do you do to get your fabric dyeing fix? It’s below zero and you can’t hang anything outside on the clothesline. I use my trusty (and rusty) old under appliance pan from Menard’s (for about $9) It’s about 36 inches square a very convenient size

The light keeps the fabric warm for hours of batching. Here are my latest results.
Using two layer of fabric, here is linen, parts of and old bamboo shade, and cotton gauze (from my bike crash.) I just sprinkle the dry dye powder directly on the prepared fabric (soda ash & urea.) Then I smoosh it around like finger painting until I like it. Last step is to simply drop the top layer over the bottom layer and watch the dye wick through. It’s amazing what it will do. You of course have no control which is the fun part. Here are some results.

Here is the top layer of linen:

Here is the bottom layer

This is the first layer with the dye sprinkled directly on top

Wool felt acid dyed same process in my NuWave Oven!

More hand dyed silk supplies for my next project

All of this dyeing frenzy is preparing supplies for a new project which will be primarily a green fabric collage process. Here are some additional supplies. These are all silk and wool art yarn hand spun and hand dyed.

Old linen a new way

At a recent estate sale, I bought a ton of old really old textured linen (for $1) It had been hand embroidered in a very strange duck and tree pattern. After about 2 months of ripping out a little here a little there. I dyed it today. Flat dying is so wonderful. You get two sides to each piece.

Here is the back of the linen, nice but …

Here is the front! Now that is better! We are having fun in my big old under appliance pan.