Doing What I Can, When I Can.....

Piece by piece, bit by bit, I'm assembling a respectable inventory for a vendor mall. It's coming together slowly, I have quite a way to go yet, and the event is 4 weeks from tomorrow.

So I'm dyeing like crazy again today, and TRYING to find more hangers that won't cost a small fortune. I have over half my hangers tied up in a store where I consign fabric, so now I'm scrounging to find more. I located an eBay seller who has 25 childrens pant hangers in the style I prefer, and am waiting to hear from him/her as to whether they have 100 or so instead of just 25.

I still have about 120 yards of greige on hand, and will probably dye the majority of it in the next 2 weeks. My tactic of dyeing certain colors all at once is working quite well. Last week, I did a group of yellows, a group of bright greens and a group of reds. Now, I need to work on blues, mossy greens, purples and browns - and some pastels, which are difficult for me.

Then yesterday, Mike put my new hanging rack together for me, and it appears I need to now work on blues and browns and true MULTI. I may try a shaving foam direct painting technique I saw online this week for some of that - perhaps go for some "sky" that would translate into half-yards. But for that type of work, I'd need to get the big, heavy dyeing "tray" out from behind the table.

The pic at left is part of my little "surprise" offering for the vendor mall - cotton underwear, dyed brilliantly. I've been doing these for myself, and certain others for several years - I'll see how it goes trying to sell them. I do need to get a mannequin made/found, tho. Oh, and I think I will dye some solidy colors (of cloth, not skivvies) - maybe in color runs of 4 or 6, and I can get 2 FQ bundles and one set of single halves from each set of yard-lengths. That's easy-peasey dyeing, but it will give me something to sell with the multis that will make everything work well together. This is good for the matchy-uppy people, and there are certainly a few of those around!

And finally - I really have to get booking on a few samples to hang in my space. It's OK to just have the fabric, but samples showing fabric use would be good, too, and I'd better get some done. So, what am I doing sitting here typing stuff that no one but me reads, anyway?? I'm outta here!!

Dyeing Like Crazy!

Finally, I am getting some serious fabric dyeing done! I've been out of the loop with it since.... August? Yep, August. Wow.

But I'd ordered some white from P&B a few weeks back, and started doing a little bit of dyeing here & there. Then I ordered some more. Last weekend I went downstairs and clambered around in the ruins of what is fondly known as "basement remodel" and sorted out all of my dyes, my dyeing containers, the auxillaries and chemicals. I consolidated the dye dregs of a number of jars into their proper mates, sorted the dyes by color groups (reds/yellows, blue/greens, browns/grays, etc). So at least now I can find what I'm looking for - or more importantly determine quickly that I don't have what I'm looking for!

Then I started dyeing. Method over madness, perhaps. Instead of doing the "mad scientist" act, I actually dyed in groups, more or less. Methodically - or as methodical as I can get.











I've been doing a soda-soak on my fabrics this week, and I think they work better that way. I'm getting a better strike, especially in parts where there is a slight resist (from twisting or manipulating the fabric). I'm also getting some wonderful "freckling" with this method, and that is often the look I strive for, and which often eludes me. The closeup of the blue/green shows the freckles I'm talking about.

At any rate, it's good to be going on this again. I put 6 of my new pieces up on etsy yesterday, but so far not many views. Last week I sold 3 yards from my shop there - the buyer definitely got the best of the bunch, so I thought I'd better put some new ones up. The link to my shop is in the sidebar on my blog. I have some books there, also, and some miscellaneous other things.

My big reason for starting all this dyeing activity is that I have committed to participating as a vendor at my guild's Spring Fling retreat. I think it will be fun to do, and provide some exposure for my hand dyes and an opportunity to promote my etsy shop.

Other items I'm getting ready for the event include hand-dyed underwear (not yer grannie's pannies!) and dyed vintage damask tablecloths. The underwear is the same type I've been dyeing for myself for eons - white cotton - but they dye beautifully. The tablecloths are wonderful. That old damask takes dye like a sponge, and the pieces that are good enough can be sold as tablecloths. The others will sell as "cutters" to use in various craft and sewing projects - or to mend and use as quilt backs and such. It's a way to rescue the unrescuable. I dyed a linen cloth (woven stripe, not damask) yesterday that had some kind of weird yellowish stain over a large area. It took the dye (violet and forest) with no problem - washed out wonderfully, and all I have to do is iron it and put it in the stack. I'll take some pics of the tablecloths and put them on my blog soon. Oh, and I've dyed some cotton L/S T's for myself, which is fun and gives me something new to wear.

So now, start the day. It's supposed to be really nice today - warm (in the 80's) and sunny (but windy). Perfect day to hang out dyeds, right? I have a washerfull of greens to put out this afternoon, and perhaps will get to some neutrals before the day is out.