Adventures in Tie Dye

Phew, it's been a while. I'd love to say that it's because I've been super busy doing all manner of exciting things, but that would be a lie. I just haven't been feeling the creative vibe these past few weeks so have had nothing to blog about! This week, however, I feel I've got my mojo back and have been making fun crafty plans and getting stuck in. For my first project, I've been playing with tie dye. My only experiences with tie dye is from summer camps, where we turned all our white clothes psychedelic! Whilst that was a LOT of fun when I was 9, I've gone for something a little more muted this time. I wanted big white and grey stripes (you know I love my monochrome) so I gathered my supplies...

I used a cheapo white cotton, Dylon hand dye in Antique Grey and loads of rubber bands. Tying up the fabric took a ridiculously long time, probably because my stripes were almost 3 inches wide!

All tied up and ready to go!

After what seemed like an eternity I was ready to dye. I mixed up my dye, per the instructions, and plunged the fabric in. i gave it a good stir and then left it to work for an hour (giving it the occasional prod in between bouts of washing up, living the dream y'all). Now I had the sneaking suspicion that this 'cotton' had some kind of polyester content, it was only £2 a metre after all, but I now suspect that polyester is the bulk of it's content. The dye did not take well. This dye is meant to come out as a mid to dark grey, it did not.

See, definitely pale or light grey. But you know what? I kinda like it, I think it turned out pretty cool. Now all that needs to be done is to sew it up into it's intended garment.
I've starting doing some sketches of possible garments using the croquis that came with a Simplicity Pattern Runway pattern I bought recently (more on that another time). It is so fun, I'm going to try and do it for all my projects. Here's the lady I drew for this project:

I'll be posting the finished skirt as soon as it's all sewn up and we can see how closely it matches the picture!!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Cheerio
Alice x