Snow And Latest Project And Dyeing

I awoke to a thick covering of snow this morning (in mid April?) and got out there to video Suzie's first snow experience before it melted:



She had a jolly nice time eating all the snow and scampering about. :0) Talking of Suzie, look what I pulled out yesterday morning:



It was hanging on a thread and I nipped it out and she didn't even notice. She was more interested gnawing on my fingers! How impossibly teeny tiny is this?

I have started on a new project and was running it by mum (as is always necessary on these occasions) when she pointed out the need for some yellow. As I told mum I didn't have any in my stash. So I decided that I needed another dyeing day. Here are today's results, just for mummy:


My monitor is showing those brightest colours as bright orange, when in fact they're a vivid lipstick red. I also did some flesh tones (or tried to) as I'll be needing them for more portrait quilts in the future. Do click on the photo and then you can see that some of it is muslin and some cotton and some velvet. I can't show you my latest project as hubble has invaded the sewing room with computer jiggery pokery, so it'll have to wait till next time. :0)

Fabric Dying & Teflon Ironing Pad.

I've been busy dyeing cotton fabric today after realising how expensive coloured blenders are per 1/4 metre. I'm frustrated that I can't show you the true colours, but you'll have to trust me when I tell you that they're pretty. :0) These all look quite samey, but they're not.


This at least shows you the mottled effect I achieved by sprinkling dye powder onto damp fabric and squishing it up. Then I blasted it for a minute in the microwave.

Look at the marbled effect. If I can find some more dye I shall do lots more.


I have been asking around for a sleeve ironing board or an ironing pad to press my appliques and small bits of scrap fabric in my sewing room. It's a pain having to keep running downstairs to set up the ironing board and then of course I have to leave it there in the way because I have to keep going back to it while I'm working. I was just in the process of ordering a rather expensive ironing pad when I saw that they also sold Teflon coated fabric for making your own pads. Well, being my Grandmother's granddaughter, I'm not one to spend out when I can make my own! So I rummaged through my pan drawer and found a Teflon baking sheet. I sewed it to four layers of old tea towels and Voila! a smashing new ironing pad with one non-stick surface for when I'm using sticky iron-on fusing and a cotton side for normal pressing. OK, so it smells of sausages....but you can't have everything can you? :0)

How to Dye Silk Ribbons.

This tutorial will be of little interest to some of you, but my crafty matey Bry will be interested and hopefully a few more passing through will find it helpful. I couldn't find a tutorial when I was searching the other day so I had to make it up as I went along!

I used these Syn Tint dyes from http://www.bearycheap.com/ as they were the only dyes I have left. They were developed to dye synthetics but I thought I'd give them a try on silk. They did the job beautifully!

I wound the ribbon into big loops and then I wet the ribbon thoroughly with a water spray. In a dinner plate I mixed the dye powder with a little water. I used several different colours at once. I then laid the ribbon into the dye making sure that it was thoroughly saturated. As each colour bleeds into the wet silk it blends to create yet more colours.

I then covered with cling film and popped in the microwave for 40 seconds. When it came out I gave it a quick rinse in cold water and dabbed most of the moisture out with a towel. It's as simple as that! I had such fun experimenting. If you sprinkle the dye powder on the wet ribbon it gives a spotty star burst effect or if you dip the wet ribbon into one colour only and then rinse half of it before microwaving, it gives varying shades of the same colour.

If you look closely you can see the subtle colour variations within each ribbon length.

And after ironing and winding onto bobbins, here is the finished result. Of course these night time photos don't do the subtle colours justice, but you'll just have to trust me on that!

So there you are. You'll have to wait a while before you learn what I am going to do with them as I am going on holiday Sunday and it will have to wait til I come back. :0)

Hairspray & silk ribbon

Me and the girls just got back from seeing the new Hairspray film at the cinema. It was FABULOUS! Livvie says it's best film she has ever seen. There are not many films that made me feel so happy, it was so totally feel-good. I remember feeling the same way when I saw Grease in 1978. :0)

I spent many happy hours today hand dying about 100m of silk ribbon. I say hand dying as I literally applied the dye by hand rather than block dying it in a big vat. It was great fun experimenting. The dye I used was actually a dye for synthetics from www.bearycheap.com but I was assured that it would also dye silk. I won't post about it now as I have to get up early tomorrow for treatment, but when I get home I shall put photos and a tutorial on. The results were so pretty!

I shall snuggle down now with my fat-boy Arthur under my arm. I can have him in bed now as he had his summer flea treatment today. :0)