Monday, August 31, 2009

dyeing update

Ok so a lady from facebook emailed me a couple of articles about dyeing fabric. One was like what the RIT people had, but it didn't have what I was looking for. The second article was about making it mottled, which is like what the Silkweavers and Enchanted Fabrics hand dyed fabrics are like. I have read it through a couple of times and I think I know what's going on. Of course, there is nothing like actually doing said dyeing to put theory into practice. It might turn out just like I think (and it probably will) but then again might be a total messy disaster. Of course, I won't know until I try it out. I did pick up several different colors of dye to attempt this grand experiment in hand-dyeing. I don't know when I will get around to actually attempting this, but it should be interesting. I'll try to take lots of pics to document it.

finally an update

Here is the finished Jewels of the Orient (aka the 2 geishas) - I finished them on 7/1/09 after oh about 9 years of stitching on them on and off. I had to wash the piece, but that isn't surprising since it'd been a long time since I started it.




I started this one back in like 2003 or 2004. It's not very big, so I should have had this one done a long time ago. Oh well. At least I'm decreasing the UFO pile. If I get around to it, I'll take a pic of what it will look like.


Here is the finished Iris, along with a closeup of the wings bit. I love the beads. The purple ones have purple on the inside and blue on the outside. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would since I had a bunch of overtime. I started her on 7/1/09 and finished her on 8/15/09.



Well I have finally gotten thru the left side of the flower faries which I'm making for Stefy's baby. I started them on 8/15/09, and had really hoped I'd be done with them today, the 31st. Oh well . . . that didn't happen. I'd really liked the idea of starting my Tannith HAED on 9/1 just like the beginning of the term of Hogwarts. I might still start it, I'm not sure tho.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

dyeing fabric

I have been getting special hand dyed cross stitch fabric (lugana) for the pixies. I decided I want to try to dye my own. That way they'd be extremely unique. But it's hard to find any info on how to go about it. I picked up some literature from that RIT dye but that was for if I want to make it all one shade or dye it. It's not the same as the cross stitch fabrics. I looked on Booksamilion to see if there was any books about it. I found some books and then found them on Amazon.com (put 'em in my wishlist too). So I decided why not swing by Barnes & Noble on the way home and see if they had any books. I found a big, fat nothing for my trouble. (Tho I was able to find the Twilight book 3 in paperback and the Gypsy Morph book which I was looking for.) Blah! They had just about any other kind of crafting thing you could think of, including get this upholstery but not one about dyeing fabric. What the crap? Three upholstery books but no dyeing? Sigh . . . I think I'll try calling over to Books a million tomorrow and see if they have any and if not, I'll order them from Amazon.

More to come on the odyssey of the fabric dyeing.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Oooh loook a dreeesssss!



I finished the dress bit of Iris a little after 6 am on Harry Potter's 29th birthday. lol I crack me up. That means 7/31/2009 for those of you who have no clue when that is.

Onto the fleshy bits, the hair, the wings, the backstitching, and the beading in that order.