Rust Dyeing II.

In my latest blog, I wrote about dyeing with fiber-reactive dyes. I dyed not only fabrics but also laces, ribbons, and threads. I was thrilled with the result and decided to try dyeing these materials also with rust. 

There were no old materials in my stash because everything was used with dyeing in August, so I had to buy some new materials. Only thread buttons were old - a gift from my dear friend Alena.

There is always enough old iron in our garden:

The materials were arranged in three plastic bags, made wet with water and vinegar, covered with iron pieces, and laid in the garden in the (autumn) sun.

The plan was to open the bags after two days or so. The fact is that I forgot it completely and didn´t open the bags until a week later. The color was great: a full dark red rust shade!

My new treasures are already washed, ironed, and neatly stored next to the ribbons, threads, and laces from the previous dyeing baths. 

After many weeks of my usual summer creative crisis, I look forward to new projects!

Happy stitching

Michaela 

 

Color by Accident

Summer time is dyeing time. In last years I tried out rust dyeing and dying in a hot bath, this time I decided to try something I have never done before: working with fibre-reactive dyes.

Surfing the internet I came across the website of the US artist Ann Johnston, who offers not only her book “Color by Accident”, but also a great video course, which I finally bought. I can definitely say, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Ann is a great artist and a great teacher as well. I couldn´t imagine that one would share that much know-how. 

After reading her book and watching her videos I finally felt ready to start.

I actually collected material for dyeing for weeks already. Old bed sheets, table cloths, a few meters of new cotton fabric by Ikea, threads, thread buttons, old laces, old and new ribbons and also some vintage crochet covers and bobbin laces I was able to buy on the market.

I bought four colours of the Procion MX dyes at first, but after reading Ann Johnston’s book I bought five more.

The Sunday afternoon was spent with “alchemy”: urea was dissolved in hot water, then dye powder was added. I also prepared the soda solution. 

I was helped by my dear husband, who not only supported me with advice, but also with his laboratory equipment. All these beakers, small and big, were absolutely helpful! 

He also went through his stash and found some useful bigger containers I could use.

 

I added some plastic dishes from the kitchen.

The whole Monday and Tuesday were full of colour, excitement, amazement and big fun.  At the end of the day, I always was quite exhausted, but happy. 

I had help and technical control all the time:)

I actually tried out only some basic methods, nevertheless, it was an exciting experience. I love my new coloured stash - both the fabrics and the threads. They are so inspiring!

They are not ironed yet because of the enormous heat of the last days, but I´m looking forward to it.

 

Happy stitching

Michaela

 

Balloon Flight

 

Every summer we have to take farewell from some colleagues who have to leave Prague after being four years in charge and who have to take the post in another part of the world. This summer we have to say goodbye to a very nice colleague, whom we will miss very badly. Since begin of the year I bothered my head about a gift for him. No matter what I did, the inspiration just didn´t come, until he expressed the wish to take a balloon flight. In no time, a collective voucher was organised by our enterprising colleague Moni, but we felt, it was somehow… only a paper. We needed to add something nice, something tangible.  

And that's when I remembered, there must have been a quilt fabric panel with vintage illustrations of various vehicles and also hot air balloons in my fabric stash. The very evening the balloons were found. 

We did a combat meeting with Moni and decided, a binder cover would be the right thing.

First I had to sew a background for the two nice balloons. I had a packet of 10 inch fabric squares from my beloved Jinny Beyer in the right colour scheme, from greens to blues and greys, which would create a feeling of green landscape, sky and clouds.

As the Czech landscape is mostly hilly, I decided for free-cut curves.

The outcome of my sewing was, eeeh, a bit wavier than I expected. 

I needed a thorough help of my iron and it was clear, that the quilting must be quite dense.

Here my choice of threads.

The outcome was quite nice.

The two balloons were fused to dark blue linen and appliquéd on the background. I used free motion quilting and two shades of thread.

Small pictures were fused and appliquéd on the back side too.

 

The last sewing evening was dedicated to what I call “technical sewing”, which means creating pockets, preparing lining, and sewing all parts together. 

No matter how often I measure and try on the cover, I´m always very nervous, if anything would be accurate enough. Fortunately, it worked out this time.

Dear Franz, I wish you from all my heart only happy flights!

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Michaela