Saturday, January 30, 2010

This is how you model

According to Jalisa
I am not seeing the pount though. These are the tees that Jalisa and I dyed last Sunday. They turned out very solid (what I was aiming for) but I think they may need a bit more decoration, maybe a stencil or two is in order.

I think she did a fabulous job. We did not make too much mess either.

Friday, January 29, 2010

January Challenge meme

Argh, I hate photos of myself. This is a Burda gored skirt (it has 12 gores and a yoke at front and back). This was actually a test run to check the pattern, but it will be good for school runs. Fabric was hand dyed by me, but I am not really that keen on it.
This is a Burda blouse. I have used this a few times now. Time for something different. I just need to get around to tracing /printing them off.

I also have a half-finished skirt, based on the above pattern, but with godets as well. I still have a couple of days to finish it in time I suppose.

6 (long) years

Every year on our anniversary we take photos in the same spot (goes back to the first year when we couldn't afford anything much and were camping down at the Gold Coast). This is my fave, but I will need to hop on my other computer to adjust it. I don't have the software on my laptop yet.
We started a goofy shot this year.


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Dyeing day

Jalisa and I did some dyeing this morning. Just some blank white tees that I bought specifically for Jalisa to dye. I wasn't sure if she was ready to dye in terms of motor skills but I thought it would be a good lesson in mixing colours.

I did not give Jalisa a choice in the procedure, just the colours. She chose dark pink, yellow, light blue, green and purple. I actually mixed the dye with some shaving cream to make the dyes visible rather than transparent in the mixing bowl. This was good way to show Jalisa the different shades of green that could be achieved by adding different amounts of blue and yellow.

We wet the t-shirts then placed them into the dye/shaving cream mixture. The dye was masssaged in, to cover all of the white areas. We then added one cup of soda ash mixture (while lifting the tee out of the bowl) and massaged this in. I was particularly careful with the pink and purple, since the red is the fastest of the dyes to strike.

I am pleased to report that the colours are looking bright and fairly solid. Maybe the most solid I have ever done. The original colours were golden yellow (I think), intense blue and mixing red. The purple that was created is gorgeous. No pictures, as we need new ones.

Friday, January 08, 2010

I'm excited

Carolyn is hosting this sewing meme:

Not sure about doing all 12, but I have already started this month's challenge. A gored, yoked skirt in hand dyed fabric. A new for me Burda pattern. I already want to do this pattern again and add godets between each gore. I have a couple of skirts like that and I love them - nice and swingy.