Our first meeting of the year

We had a great first meeting last Sunday and it was good to see so many of the members. We were working on narrow strip insertions and I'll post pictures later.

We also had a show and tell of fabric from our November meeting. The Shibori and resist dyeing session produced some very nice and subtle patterns and here are some photos of the results, from:

Pat

Liz

Lis

Phyl

Julie

And finally, a lovely palette of dyed fabric and threads from Julie

At next month's meeting we'll be revisiting working with sheer fabrics. I'll post details in the next few weeks.

Happy New Year...

... to all our members, and anyone else reading this blog.

Mandy sent me a couple of before and after photos of fabric she dyed at the November meeting. Here is the fabric before rinsing. You can see the plastic discs used as a clamped resist.

And here is the fabric after rinsing. The circles can be seen clearly and there's an interesting variation in the dye take up with some areas more yellow and some more blue.

The next meeting will be on Sunday 19 January, when we will be trying out some techniques for using dyed fabric, such as using narrow insertions. We will also be discussing a programme of meetings for the year.

Hope to see you there!

Meeting cancellation and results from the Shibori dyeing session

Please note that the 15 December meeting has been cancelled, as not enough people are available. The next meeting will be on Sunday 19 January. See the 'meeting dates' page above for all dates for 2014.

Here are two of my fabric pieces from last month's Shibori dyeing session. I'd be happy to post more pictures if any members would like to send me one or two.

This one was pleated lengthwise and wrapped around a tube, then squashed down towards one end and bound with string. I painted on green dye first, then black dye the following day. I'm very pleased with the feather like patterns (and it is greener than it looks in the photo).

This one is a piece of superliner from Empress Mills (cotton fabric with a backing of polyester wadding). I pleated it and secured the pleats with rubber bands. Orange dye was followed a few hours later with petrol green. I like this one so much, I now think it is 'too good' to use as a bag lining!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's dyed fabric at the meeting in January.

Shibori dyeing session

We had a great meeting on Saturday, thanks to Leah who brought along all the dyes. We were dyeing the fabric we had prepared at (and since) the last meeting. Some fabric was Shibori stitched and others wrapped and tied round resists. There were lots of interesting bundles: Here are fabrics prepared by Catherine

And some by Liz

Then we applied the dye...

Come back later to see the results!

November meeting - Dyeing our stitch resist pieces (and anything else)

At our next meeting on Saturday 16 November, Leah will be bringing along dyes and soda solution so that you can dye your Shibori pieces. She will also demonstrate how she uses perspex plates to form resists (as in the example below) and we can also try wrapping cloth around a pole to create a resist. 

See the 'And then we set it on fire' blog for ideas:

 

http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/shibori-folding.html

 

http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.co.uk/2013_07_01_archive.html

 

It will also be an opportunity for you to top up you stash of hand dyed fabrics. Leah will be bringing the seven basic colours (Royal Blue, Turquoise, Magenta, Scarlet, Golden Yellow, Acid Lemon and Black) and will also bring Rust, Petrol Green and Indigo. She will bring soda solution as well as a soda bucket if you want to presoak any of your fabric. There will be a charge of £4 for dyes and soda on the day, in addition to the usual £5 meeting fee. 

Please let Leah know if you will be attending so she knows how much dye to prepare.

Below is the list of things you will need to bring -

 

Salt solution – dissolve 500g of the cheapest table salt you can buy in 2 litres of water. You’ll need to use fairly hot water to get all the salt to dissolve. Empty 2 litre soft drinks bottles are ideal for storing the solution.

Fabric – procion dyes will only work with cotton, silk or viscose. Unless the fabric is sold as ‘prepared for dye (PFD) you will need to put the fabric through a hot wash to remove any dressings. Even with PFD fabrics it is worth checking how easily they absorb a drop of water, it should absorb instantly – if in doubt pre-wash the fabric. How much fabric you need will depend on what you want to do but you can easily dye 5+metres in a day. Don't forget the fabric you stitched in preparation at the last meeting.

Large plastic sheet, an apron or wear old cloths and rubber gloves – procion dyes will stain you and more importantly will stain the floor and we don’t want any accidents!

Plastic poles and string if you want to try that type of resist.

A range of plastic cups and spoons for mixing the solutions as well as plastic bags, trays or a bucket to carry your wet fabrics home.

Lots of containers for dyeing the fabric in depending on what you want to do – plastic freezer bags for dyeing ‘solid’ colours, empty plastic pots for layered or parfait dyeing, trays for dyeing large pieces of fabric and for dyeing threads. Use old yoghurt pots, ice cream containers, soap tablet boxes etc.

Kitchen towel for mopping up.

Scissor for cutting fabric and a marker pen for labelling fabric / freezer bags.

Notebook to keep track of what combinations of dyes you use.

We’ll have a shared lunch and show and tell as per usual.

Preparing our stitch resists - October meeting

At yesterday's meeting we were busy preparing our fabric for dyeing in November, so there's not much to see! Lis brought these samples and explained how each had been done. Believe it or not, these are all created using lines of running stitch, which are pulled up tight to stop the dye getting to some areas.

Then we all sat and stitched industriously with neutral threads and fabrics (or with coloured fabrics). The gathered fabrics don't look like anything at this stage.

We also saw samples of other resist techniques which we could try at the next meeting: pleating, wrapping with string, wrapping round a pole or tube and the photo here is of a piece over dyed using a clamp resist.

Keep stitching! You have four weeks to prepare lots of pieces to dye in November.

Prints from September's meeting

Before we have another meeting tomorrow, here are a few photos from last month's meeting.

This one uses children's building blocks to produce a cityscape.

The rest use homemade print blocks.