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Me Musing .
. . October
30, 2008 . . .
I have been
having a blast
this afternoon! I got a late start as I was checking friend Connie
Rose's latest blog to see what she was up to and . . . (not)
to my surprise she had just finished a few fabrics that incorporates
dye discharge techniques. I say (not)
as the past week it seems that ideas that have come to me 'seemingly
out of the ethers' are ones she then writes about doing!
A few days
ago when I did the silk hankies I had left out all my fabric dyes/paints/supplies.
Since last year I had been telling myself that I should try out
the dye discharge product that I bought back then!
Well . . .
today was the day. I have been re-looking at my fabric stash and
washing some of the ones I got on my last Portland trip . . . so
they would be 'ready' for
some instanteous
happening that might occur! I pulled out what
was left from my recent pant/jacket sewing fun plus the silk screen
I had made of a crane. I got the crane idea from a small piece of
kimono fabric that a woman sent me 3 years ago when I ordered a
few of her Japanese-style patterns.
I
never could quite figure out what to do with the piece as I don't
'do black' and it wasn't really enough
for anything. I did, however, love the crane!
The
silk screen I had made was smaller than the fabric image so I decided
to try that on some of my recent remnants. The discharge instructions
say that every fabric reacts differently to the discharge, which
sets up the process as 'let's see
what happens here' . . . always a good start!
It
was easy to paint the discharge medium onto the screen. And with
the woodstove going this time of year, things dry really fast in
here! Once dry, using a steam iron 'removes' the dye from the fabric.
The fabric has
a slight shine and almost raised cell-like
background. The crane came out a periwinkle colour!
This may have been a polyester blend which could have
resulted in a more muted image. Supposedly natural fibers
should be used!
The
next were a dark espresso silk dupiani and a rust linen-silk blend.
The rust
silk-linen blend really discharged well!
The
espresso brown dupiani gave me the idea that it might be a good
technique for sashiko
stitching, a
utilitarian stitch that originated in Japan for mending and repairing
worn areas of cloth or to add strength to areas of clothing.
Again,
a few years ago, I had bought a wonderful book by Nancy Shriber
on Sashiko
Handbags and had diligently cut out my 14" x 14" squares
and 'sashiko stitched' them . . . never to be made into a handbag!
The designs
are drawn on the flannel backing and then hand-stitched
using whatever kind of thread desired.
So
now I have a few new 'old
things' to work on in the
evenings!
Until
soon,
Che'usa
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