Random creativity

I thought I'd share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)

A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.

And a little photography.

Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.

How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?

I like the washing line...

When it looks like this!

I'll be using these dyed flannel pieces to make more tie dye Mama pads, I also have 2 new designs to sew up this time, so watch out for those.

New fabrics in the shop

Silk dyed in a lotus blossom

Spiral dyed homespun

Shibori technique on homespun

All in the shop now :)

We survived - we even thrived a little!

The first day back homeschooling was the stuff of nightmares as I dealt with children who had forgotten how to be good students! Thankfully, it got progressively better as the week continued and now we're well and truly back into a good routine.

I even got a little time to sew and dye.

Little Miss 3.5 has been asking for one of my twirly circle skirts for some time. I received the cotton lawn I'd been waiting on and once she saw the roll there were no more excuses!

In her favourite colours - purple and pink. I think she likes it!

This one is an elasticated A - line that I dyed in a spiral.

It's destined for my Etsy shop.

I love the summery colours!

It's so rewarding to be able to make clothes from scratch.

New goodies in the shop

I've been very busy this morning with these new listings for my Etsy shop. I sort of wish I could skip the whole listing part and just get on with the creating part!

Remember the bright shibori dyed fabric? Now it's a skirt.

           This is pretty cool - a reversible scarf. One side is bright.

                        The other is dark.

                        Do you like?

Now that grabs your attention!

I've been experimenting with the shibori technique which is really fun and interesting. I was quite surprised when I unwrapped this yesterday after leaving it for hours in plastic in the hot baking sun.

I didn't exactly get the fine lines I wanted but it certainly doesn't lack for brightness! I'll see how it looks as a skirt.

Handmade gifts

I haven't done too well with the handmade gifts this year, but I almost always make something for the girls. Usually it's a doll or soft toy but I think they have plenty of those now!

So I made up some silk pillowcases and dyed them. This one is for my 5 year old who loves pink.

And this one for my 3 year old who loves yellow and pink. These are so nice to lie on, I think I'll be getting requests from other family members when they see these!

What is that?!! you may be thinking. My first thought when I rinsed this out was "oh crap!" The story behind it: I wanted to buy some cotton lawn to make more circle skirts - the "major Australian craft retailer" I went to had run out so the sales assistant suggested using voile (assuring me it was 100% cotton), which I hadn't used before. I cut out 3 skirts and spent.. ahem!.. quite a bit of time tyeing and dyeing them. Nearly all the colour washed out. The pillowcases were in the same dye batch, so I know it's the fabric that's the problem.

When I was having a whinge to my husband about it lastnight his response was "they told you it was 100% cotton and you believed it?" I have history with this retailer. Note to self - don't trust a sales assistant who likely knows a lot less than I do!

You win some, you lose some.

Hand dyed top for the boy

I don't sew all that much for the boy - It's not like you can make a 10 year old boy the cute little outfits you could have when they were little. I do like to make his basic pants and things though.

The pattern is Jalie 2918 which I have also used for my husband with excellent results. I started with white Stella and dyed it what I thought would be a sky blue. It came out awfully light and washed out which I now realise was probably due to a too low temperature in the mixing and curing.

I gave it another go with cobalt blue and better temperatures and it came out perfect! I love this colour on my blue eyed boy.

Spiral dyed circle skirt

A new item in my Etsy shop! I made this full circle skirt from cotton lawn, then dyed a spiral with deep magenta and sky blue. The result is a beautiful berry swirl!

It's so good for twirling! I'll be making more of these - they are so pretty and drape gorgeously.

SOLD - Thank you Lesley!

Don't forget the book giveaway ends tomorrow!

Finished and well received!

I'm happy to say I did finish the needle books in time for stitching group lastnight. It's surprising how long it takes to hand paint, free motion quilt, then sew up one of these. Well worth the effort though - the stitching ladies loved them!

The interiors have a contrast fabric, a wool felt pocket and sheet of wool felt for the needles. They fasten with snaps.

So, this afternoon I'll attempt to continue working on a skirt for me that has involved a little too much unpicking for my liking! Then there are those cushion covers to be made up, the top to be re - dyed, the baby gowns I really should get to, the multitude of embroideries to choose from.............

I should mention that I'll be running my Christmas giveaway very soon so stay tuned :)

Dyeing to know what's missing

Last summer I did quite a bit of dyeing with Drimarene K dyes. I love everything about these dyes except their price tag. I always had excellent results using these dyes.

So this time around I'm trying Procion simply because they're a fraction of the price. I'm now getting mixed results and am not happy with it all. The colours are strong (I make them strong because I like it that way) but lack the vibrancy of the Drimarene K items I've previously done.

I dyed some Stella for the first time this week when I made shorts for the girls. I think I oversaturated and lost definition in the designs. A lesson for next time.

Maybe I'm not combining the right colours? For example, the yellow I have is a golden yellow which is almost an orange - my next order will be for lemon yellow.

Another distorted design and way too mottled for my liking. The good news is the girls think they're wonderful and want to wear them a lot so all is not lost.

I also made a top for the boy that I dyed with the immersion technique (very carefully) that came up really disappointing. To be specific, it looks like an older and worn top rather than brand new and vibrant. I've trawled information to find what may be wrong - the only thing I can think of is the curing temperatures may be a little low as the weather hasn't really warmed up yet.

I know other dyers get great and vibrant results with Procion, so there must be something amiss with what I'm doing.

Any suggestions?

From scraps to....

Experimenting with dyes and paints is lots of fun but can leave you with a lot of swatches. Being the despiser of waste that I am I'm always trying to come up with ways of using the scraps.

My embroidery scissors had been housed in my needlecase, which was just awful as they were forever falling out.

Ah - much better! If I was going to have a scissors case it needed to be bright so I wouldn't lose it!

I sewed together bits and pieces of painted and dyed swatches, then practiced my free motion embroidery to make it really interesting.

I love a project that brings together a variety of skills and techniques. I machine embroidered spirals on the front.

And stippled all over the back. Now I think I'm ready to tackle a bigger machine embroidered project!

Rainbow doll

Finally - a new doll for the shop! This one is a little bit special because she has a lot of hand dyed elements.

Her dark purple dress was hand dyed by me (the frill is from some fabric Nic Wood sent me). The silk cape was dyed in the shibori method by me. Her flared pants were hand painted by my son.

Then there is the hair of course. The gorgeous rainbow hand dyed and spun yarn from Nell.

I don't think I'll be too sad if this doll doesn't find a home for Christmas, there are always other possibilities!

Happy swapping

I love a happy swap. You may recall I received some beautiful wool from Nell last week. She has her parcel from me now, so I can show you what I sent. I used a few different techniques for the fat quarters above.

The pink and purple playsilk was painted with stripes and then sprinkled with sea salt (in honour of Nell's pink and purple princess!)

Nell mentioned water play, so the idea for the blue playsilk was born. The silk was dyed using a shibori technique.

And last but not least - a little play doll for "the baby", knowing how much my "baby" loves her doll that is similar.

Silk mandala cape

Remember the mandala I dyed last week? Now it's a children's cape! It is really gorgeous, I'd love to make more of these.

I intend to make one for each of the girls but as my silk supplies have been somewhat depleted recently it will have to wait.

I used some of my son's handpainted fabric for the collar and added snaps for doing up.

This one is in my Etsy shop now, custom orders are available too.

Mandala dress

I finished this dress/ long top for my 3 year old today, it was quite a process, but well worth it! First came the dyeing then the sewing, as I wanted separately coloured pieces. I used habotai silk and made up the design as I went along.

The back view is a beautiful turquoise. I love turquoise. The dress sits gorgeously on her and is light and flowing.

I'll be making these in various sizes for my Etsy shop once I do a little more tweaking. I think they would do well at a market too, which I hope to do eventually. If anyone is interested in pre ordering for Christmas you are most welcome to contact me.

My first mandala woohoo!!

                                                                              That's it!
I'm officially moving into my laundry and dedicating my life to making beautiful colours on fabric, you may never see me again except when I have some new colours to show off.
But then I guess someone has to cook, clean, care for the children.......

                                                Ah well, one can dream, can one not?