Tag: reuse

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Rust Dyeing

Time to try something new.  
It seems a little whack-a-doo but that never stops me from trying something.  
In fact, it kinda makes it more tempting, doesn’t it?
The idea is pretty simple.  You take some metal that will rust and put it on or wrap it in some fabric.
Get them wet to encourage rusting.  
We added vinegar to some of the pieces and salt water to others to see which would encourage rusting  better.
I’m thrilled to be rusting this shirt.  It’s an Alabama Chanin design that I made with an old tee-shirt.  It fits me really well but I stopped sewing at this point when I saw the very light but also really big stain on the front.  Oh, that’s why that shirt was in the thrift shop.  So I’m rusting over the stain here, fingers crossed.
Bottle caps on a linen sleeve that is resting on a grate.
Soaking some washers and bottle caps in salt water.
The tool chest, including my ubiquitous cup of tea.
I looked for spray bottles at the dollar store but couldn’t find any so I bought these cool water cannon things.  
Way more fun to use than spray bottles.
These are Jennifer’s pieces, at least one is destined to be an apron.
Then we covered everything with a tarp.  We just need to keep it wet and hope for the best.  It should take about 24 hours to get rusted.  
Have you ever rust dyed? I’m curious to hear about people’s experiences.  
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Busy

Some of the things that have been keeping me busy lately. 
Dying with rust.  That will get it’s own post soon.  It’s totally fun.
A name tag challenge via my Modern Quilting Guild.  I used some of the linen that we dyed with indigo and was inspired by denim badges of the seventies.  Funny how even when I don’t use denim, I use denim…sort of.
And my parents have been visiting.  During which time, my husband and father put up a shed and we (Well, mostly they and a little bit I) built a coop and run for the chickens.  It’s not quite done yet but it’s incredible sturdy and I’m thrilled with it.  
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Jennifer Napkins

I decided to sew napkins yesterday.  
I figured they needed the largest bit of uninterrupted fabric.  Everything else that I’m itching to make (quilts, bags, journal covers) can be put together with scraps.  I guess napkins could too but they I think the fewer seams they have the better. 
They were already folded up in the napkin basket when I took these pictures.  That’s why they’re all wrinkly
I made five napkins.  Once I settled on what to make, it went pretty fast.
Top half was a shirt – see the darts?  I unstitched them  after dying.  I think they look pretty cool.  The bottom half was a skirt panel with embroidery.  I french seamed the two together.
I should tell you that we are big cloth napkin users.  We don’t even own paper napkins.  I grew up using paper towels but only if needed – like with ribs.  Usually, we just used our sleeves.  
My husband grew up with paper napkins. He used several per meal.  It took us some time to find the middle ground of cloth napkins.  They are very handy and you can take them anywhere.  These are our first linen napkins and we feel pretty fancy.   
Small napkins work well too.  
We really like using cloth napkins now.  We keep them in a basket near the table so we can grab them as needed.  Our napkin basket is a real hodgepodge.  We actually still have some napkins from out wedding (20 years this summer).  There are lots and lots of napkins that I’ve sewn over the years and none of them really match.  
Since this had been a shirt, it wasn’t quite big enough to cut out so I just left out a corner.  Everything I dyed had been thrifted, that’s how we ended up with these big blotches when we dyed them.  I don’t know what they were dirty with, some kind of oil probably, and the wax didn’t take there.  All part of the adventure.
I’m a huge fan of the random and find things that are too consistent looking to be annoying.  I can accept that about myself as part of my aesthetic now, instead of a weird quirk.  It’s just who I am.  So, with that in mind, the napkins I sewed yesterday are pretty random, in size, shape and patterns.  
They are Jennifer napkins.
I left the the curve of the hem of the skirt intact.  🙂
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You know what I need?

You know what I need?  A sewing machine with an attached laptop.  So I can blog, look at Pinterest, check Ravelry and listen to Podcasts while I sew – one action smoothly transitioning to the next without having to interrupt my flow.
But my flow is temporarily interrupted for the best reason.  I have wanted indigo dyed linen to play with since the first time I saw boro quilts and fell in love with them.  Now I have some and I can think of too many things to do and I want to do each one equally as much as the others.
I want to make a traditional quilt.
I want to make a small “art quilt” to hang.
I want to make some pogaji with enclosed seams.
Also, napkins and a small bag and a journal cover.
I want to embroider on it.
These things aren’t all mutually exclusive.  
I could embroider a napkin or make a quilted journal cover.
Gratuitous close up
I want to make it all all at once.  Kind of like how I want to surf the internet, sew and listen to stuff all at once.  It’s like this weird energy I’m stuck in right now.  In the pause between paragraphs, I’ve been threading my sewing machine, gathering supplies, answering emails and making my plans. 
To do everything at once.  
What the hell, flow?
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We did it again

We just couldn’t help ourselves.  
The dye was right there and so many things that could be blue, aren’t weren’t.
We’re mostly thrilled with the shibori stuff.  
This…
 Made this!
These …

Made this and…
This.  Plus that’s me goofing off a bit and wearing a shirt I dyed last week. 
Gratuitous doily close up – not the last one you’ll see today. 
This…

Made this.
Told you there would be another.  I have a thing for crocheted doilies.
This…
Made this.
Every time I see one, I buy it.  Every crocheted anything you see was made by hand.  There is no crocheting machine.
The yarn was exciting too.
Little yellow flowers rained down on us from the tree the whole time.
We have learned so much about indigo.  We’ll be doing this some more and we want to share it with more peeps.  If you are near to Madison WI and are interested in joining an Indigo Dyeing Day, send us an email, We’ll totally send you all the details when it gets closer to the date.  It’ll be in the fall.
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Quilt me

“Wouldn’t I make a lovely quilt?.” the fabric quietly whispered to me,”quiiiilt meeeee”
“What?” I said, slightly deafened from all that Joan Jett back in the 80’s
“I’d be delightful.  Linen quilt…indigo dye….hint, hint”
“Huh?”

“QUILT ME YOU FREAKIN” IDIOT!”
“Oh, hey.  Good idea.  Speak up next time, I don’t hear subtle hints.  Sheesh.”
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Didn’t Know An Eyelet From A Hole In The Grommet

And to think, an hour ago I didn’t know an eyelet from a hole in the grommet.  
Yesterday I took a pile of canvas bags that I bought at the thrift shop…
Chopped them up and (though you can’t tell and it felt sort of pointless) ironed the bejeebers out of them.
I used the pattern from this book as a general guide
and made an apron.
Here are some extraneous close ups
Because I like extraneous close ups.
I got stuck for a bit at the ties because I knew what I wanted but I had never successfully made eyelets before.  My business partner and I have spent a fair amount of time figuring the ins and outs of good apron ties.  They can’t just go around your neck – that pulls and is uncomfortable- they need to cross in back.  
Eyelets are not hard, it turns out.  They are hard if you just grab some and start hammering them without knowing what you’re doing.  That’s the technique I’ve been using for years.  
Today I checked youtube and learned that there’s an actual technique and that I already owned all the right tools.  How did we ever know things before the internet?
So…BOOM…apron.  I think next time I’d round the edges at the bottom.  I do plan on making more.  This is just a practice apron.  I have some other apron ideas:  I’d like to try a patchwork of canvas bags and also of denim and then make one out of linen …
I’ve spared you the NINE shots of just my butt as tried to guess the right photo taking angle.  
I really only wanted to get a picture of the ties.  
Also, I found this when I was out shopping and put it right up on the Etsy shop.  How cute it that?
It’s totally cute but I think someone else should use it to make stuff or to watch or for some other purpose.  I’ve got a pretty good eye for finding tidbits, though.  Just not an idea of what to do with every kind of tidbit I find.  They do tend to pile up sometimes.