Having fun with dyes and making bags again.

Dyed applied over strips of masking tape, More dye applied after tape removed.

 The following collection of photos show the fabric dyed at the Textiles without limits workshop. I have annotated the photos to explain the various processes I tried out.

Dye applied using scrunched up kitchen paper.

The kitchen paper I used when dabbing on dye for the above fabric, I have saved these pieces for use too.

Fabric folded and held with clips before dyeing.

Fabric folded and tied with brown thread - this has also dyed the fabric in places.

Fabric taken out of dye to show clips and plastic disks in place.

Fabric opened out and ironed - see the previous photo.

Fabric held with bulldog clip during dyeing.

The resulting fabric. I shall probably over dye or print this piece. Perhaps both?

 At the moment I am getting on with some Christmas sewing - some fabric bags for the presents. I last did this a couple of years ago and the bags were very popular. In fact I had a request for one, so everyone will get one this year. Each bag has two pockets - one is zipped and other open. So far, I have completed three with just another three to finish off. All the fabric is cut to size and the zips and their tags are ready it is just a matter of finishing them off today. Then I must get on with the waistcoat which my elder daughter wants as her present this year.

Natural colours and having fun with dyes

Colours around my garden

I really should have written this post a couple of weeks ago, but I found myself far too busy to post anything here. These photos were taken on the 17th November, they day after I had been on a dyeing day with the Weekend group. This group is really called "Textiles without limits" and they have a blog which can be found here.

Walking around the village

Going for a walk with Ella - just look at those legs!

Colours around my garden

The dyeing session was huge fun. Many of the other members of the group had been to a previous session where they had been doing some shibori - preparing fabric ready for dyeing.

My collection of freshly dyed fabrics

I hadn't been able to go to that meeting, but I was able to try out some of the ideas since Leah had given us a link to an amazing blog called "And then we set it on fire". I copied some of the ideas there to try out with my own fabrics. As you can see I did get through rather a lot of fabric, to say nothing of bulldog clips, those clips used to clip on freezer bags, string and washers. I had a lot of fun and will share the before and after photos in my next Blog post.