This past week, I have been working fervently on a wrap ordered and paid for by a friend. It was my first paid dyed wrap job and I was excited to get started on it. It's all ready to ship out, but before I say goodbye forever to my creation, I will share it with you. My friend told me what colors and style she was thinking of, and gave me some "artistic freedom" in deciding the logistics of the design. I settled on professional Procion dyes orderd from dharmatrading.com and ordered the osnaburg natural, pre-shrunk fabric from fabric.com (it says pre-shrunk but I knew better and ordered extra. It ended up shrinking about half a yard lengthwise). I knew I would be doing a grad dye and chose Turquoise (#PR25) and Fuchsia Red (#PR13). Both of these are primaries, meaning that they will mix together perfectly. There are dozens of pinks and blues to choose from, but some of the other shades are mixed with other colors and I only wanted pure pink and blue to ensure that when they mixed on the fabric, they would turn the right shade of purple. After prewashing, measuring, hemming and scouring, I dried my fabric and started the glue resist. I tested it on several scraps of fabric. My initial plan was to just brush over a piece of still craft lace that I had in my craft closet. Boy, did I ever underestimate just how hard it is to stencil lace with glue! Needless to say, all of my attempts to stencil a lace design with Elmer's glue failed miserably. I tried watering down the glue, dampening the fabric, printed out stencils from Google Images and cut them out with an X-acto knife, and using a lace curtain I have. None of them came out as detailed as I wanted it to be. So, freehanding it was! About 4 whole yards of it. It took me hours, but was pretty happy with how it turned out. I did a grad/ombre dye effect in the fuchsia dye on one rail, turquoise on the other. Where they met in the middle, I added purple made up of both of these colors, mixed in a squirt bottle. Unfortunately, most of the purple washed out. It was just too diluted. The glue washed out, as well, making it impossible to re-do, but in the end, after the wrap was rinsed and dried, the purple is still visible. After a few hiccups (having to re-dip the rails for deeper colors), I finally got the end result I was looking for: bright, vibrant fuchsia and turquoise, with a delicate lace design running along the middle. Depending on the type of carry being used, the lace stands out beautifully. My friend is thinking of converting it to a ring sling, which I think would be perfect, as well, and will showcase the subtle purple splendidly. So, since my little diva was not in the mood to play, I had to practice with Teddy. I learned that teddy bears are actually more difficult to wrap, having no knees or weight in their seat! But here it is: I am still a novice dyer but am learning it quickly and am loving it so far. Another project I worked on simultaneously was a Batman tie-dye shirt for my son, and another dish towel. Unfortunately, the Batman shirt was a bit of a fail. My son loves it, but I will be attempting it again soon to perfect the batwing! As for the kitchen towel/unpaper towel, I attempted my first heart design and loved how easy it was, and how it turned out! I also completed a Rainbow Tablecloth, which is posted as a separate tutorial here on my blog. Check it out!
I hope to get more tie dyeing jobs in the future. This was a lot of fun, I learned so much along the way, and I get to see someone else enjoying and using my creations. Win-win! For more information on how to order your own custom-dyed fabric from me, click here. Until next time...!
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Meet & GreetHi! My name is Astrid and I am an unschooling, working mama of 3 with an intense need to design, craft and create. Follow me for ideas, tutorials, DIY projects, homeschooling resources and more. Archives
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