Yay - first sewing of the year, a dye and show and a GIVEAWAY

I finally got around to finishing off some shirts I started last year. Pattern is Ottobre.

I love collared shirts. I had planned on coordinating shorts but these will probably go with some shorts that I bought recently.
Okay, time for a essay! I have come to think that with dyeing, sometimes you have to prepare for the unexpected. When I decided to dye some 100% cotton jersey rompers/onesies, I thought they would turn out the same as the drill that I had been using the same day. Actually, I thought they would turn out better because I had actually had a chance to practice the marbling patterns. But when I took them out of the washer, I realised that most of the dye had run out and it only had very subtle pastel swirls.

Disappointed, I read through my notes and thought that they needed more time and the dye/shaving cream needed more colour. So the next day I made the colours stronger and lay them on the dye for 10 minutes each side. They looked so much more vivid when wet and the patterns I had done looked great. But again, they mostly washed out. Okay, so on Wednesday I decided the jersey I wanted to dye needed the stronger dye plus 20 minutes left on the dye plus longer than 4 hours to cure.

Guess what. I have come to the conclusion that, for the moment being, I am getting better results with the cotton wovens so I am going to concentrate on using them next time I dye.

Anyway, here are the results.

See the drill (folded up)- that was left on the dye for 5 minutes and cured for maybe 4 hours. It actually retained most of the colours I used. The jersey ended up with purple and some blue, when I had used blue, purple and pink, left it on the dye for 20 minutes and cured for 8 hours.

Here is the giveaway. A size 1 romper, marbled dyed pastel shades of yellow, blue and green. Just leave a comment and Jalisa will draw a name Friday night.