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Category: Dyeing fabric

A Painted Perry

When I made my camouflage Seamwork Perry, I liked it so much that I immediately cut out another one from a cotton Spandex knit from a previous Girl Charlee* knitfix fabric.

I couldn’t do pattern matching when cutting the dress out, so I decided to just cut it out however I could then I used some Jacquard Textile Color* to paint colored stripes onto the fabric to try to mask the pattern mismatch.

I started painting the pieces way back in May.  I did some additional painting some time after that, but then I finally just finished it a couple days ago.  After it was all dried, I heat set it with the iron following the directions.

I cut bodice lining pieces from the same black cameo thermal knit fabric I used to line my Fabricista sweater dress.

I liked the elastic loop and button I used for the camo Perry, so I decided to do that again.  Since I planned this before sewing the dress together, I basted a loop of elastic that I’d colored with a blue Sharpie to the back bodice piece before sewing the shell and lining together at the neckline so that the raw ends are enclosed.  Then sewed on a blue button the finish the closure.

Also I couldn’t find a couple pieces – the front pocket piece and the sleeve cuffs.  I swear I cut them out, but it’s been so long and they aren’t with the other pieces, so either I’m remembering wrong or they got lost.  So, I cut the missing pocket piece from that same black cameo knit and instead of replacing the sleeve cuff with a different fabric, I just hemmed the sleeve 1″ to create a channel then cut pieces of 1/2″ elastic and fed it through the channel.

I also sewed all of the vertical seams with 5/8″ seam allowance instead of 3/8″ to try to size the dress down a bit.

I’m not super happy with the fit of the waist elastic.  I followed the instructions and cut the elastic to my waist measurement minus 2″.  But I must have stretched it out while installing it, because the waist doesn’t have as much definition as my camo one.

There are a few spots where I missed fully applying the color.  When I started with the blue, I was trying to go for a hand painted look, so the missed spots were a feature.  But now that it’s all put together, those spots are a little distracting to me.  Also, some of the coloring between the pieces don’t quite match shades, or the color lines across the seams aren’t exact.  So I may end up doing another pass of the painting.  Although, I am pretty happy with how it looks as is.

*affiliate link – I gotta try to help support my sewing habit somehow.

Adventures in dyeing

I’ve been purchasing a couple knitfix bags from Girl Charlee the last few months.  It’s fun to get random fabrics that I wouldn’t normally try.  I’ve gotten some fun stuff.

I’ve gotten a lot of white fabrics that I wouldn’t really wear, so I’ve been planning to do some dyeing for a while.  Here are some before photos.  Not the best, but you can get the idea.

White shells and seahorses on white cotton jersey knit

Black dots on white cotton spandex knit

White green daisy on white cotton jersey knit

Black vertical small stripe on white cotton jersey knit
Didn’t have a before of the bags I dyed, but it looked like this except the design was printed in red instead of purple.

I used a large cat litter bucket in the bath tub.  I filled it about half way up with hot water from the tap, one cup of salt and 6 Tbsp of violet Rit dye and 2 Tbsp of Navy Blue.  I dyed the white on white shells and seahorses in this dye bath along with one of the bags from June.

After I was done, i removed the fabric then added 2 Tbsp of fuchsia to the color already in the bucket and I put the green and white daisies in.

Then I dumped the dye out and mixed a new batch with 1 cup of salt, 6 Tbsp of Navy blue Rit and 2 Tbsp of fuchsia then added the polka dots and small stripes and another of the June bags.

And here they are all dried.

I’m very pleased with how they turned out.  I had been hoping the ones on the right would have come out darker.  I’m wondering if leaving them in the dye longer would have helped or if I just needed more dye.  I like the color and I think next time I’ll try the same ratio but with a higher concentration and see if that makes a difference.

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