sewing projects
With my newly dyed material that is such a lovely antique pink, I couldn’t help but make some lovely roses. These are incredibly easy!
Darn this yellow light! They really are quite pink! I probably have my house painted all sorts of crazy colors accounting for my ugly light bulbs! And please forgive my brown fingers, as I had my hand in a pot of brown dye all day doing this! So worth it!
Hand made flowers! Awesome use of fabric scraps!
I tie dyed when I was a teenager, but I had an adult help me and all I really remember was tying rubber bands. But I am not so much into tie dying, for me that ship has sailed, I don’t care to ever see it again. I really bought this Rit dye to try some home made spray ink for stamping. (And because it was on sale). But before I got my spray bottles all filled up, it struck me to try a little dying. I have several (I can’t say how many because husbandly ears are listening) pillow cases that are all white. I am hoping to stamp them up, but really, I have so many that some other colors would be fabulous.
Before I read directions or formulated a plan I had a pot of water boiling on the stove. Ah, good, the directions said to do that! I got a little ahead of myself. I barely got the first case in before I was ready to try ombre! I didn’t measure the amount of water, it was just all crazy. My first attempt was purple because I horded some of the powder. After a few of those I threw caution to the wind and dumped the rest in the pot. How about that! It is brown after all. Imagine if I followed directions! It said to keep it simmering for 30 minutes. I never made it that far. I did manage to walk away for 5 minutes, but only because I was raiding closets looking for more material to experiment with! It was crazy fun!
Here is what I ended up with.
Now it is a goofy phone camera, so it is hard to tell, but basically everything is sepia! I really didn’t want it dark dark brown like the box said it would be, so that is why I rescued it so quickly (that and I couldn’t stand the wait) The dress was a soft pink with cream lace overlay. Very cute, but after the sepia effect….GORgeous! This picture shows better lighting, even still, it is a bit darker that this. Check out the tulle underneath the skirt! This is the material I am going to make another jean skirt out of! I can’t wait!
So, I was bemoaning the fact that I had NO fall colors in my remnant basket! Not anymore! I am off to buy some orange and red next! After all, if you have been hanging on to fabric for 15 years, perhaps it is time to admit you really don’t like it! I did get some really nice dark browns out of it too, but you will have to wait to see that. They are still in the dryer!
Next I would like to try to bleach some designs. I saw a blog where someone had a fabric dying party. They had several bins of different colors. Everyone brought a pack of dye and a bucket. (Angels singing, clouds parting) Fabric dying is definetly a fun toy! I must do more! And don’t forget to make some ink sprays with the extra!
My youngest boy is about the same size as my girl. He is growing out of some jeans, but they fit her just fine because she is a string bean. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought I’d have a go.
I didn’t quite get the ratio right on the ruffles, but she still loved it. It is pretty much a no-brainer. Cut off the jeans just above the crotch. Try to make the cut as straight as possible. Each ruffle should just about double in circumference. I ironed the seam of the jeans up so that it would hang a little straighter and stitched it down.
I am going to try this idea again with a dress I pulled out of her closet that was getting too small for her. It is pretty great raiding closets and coming out with “brand new” clothes. I think this scrapping thing might come in pretty handy!