Velvety Goodness

I just thought I would show you some of the cotton velvet I had dyed for the Big Textiles Show. I had a wide range of colours and textures to choose from and they sold really well! Here are some of the ones I had left which, conveniently, will be available in my Etsy shop! They are only smallish pieces which are ideal for appliques where you only need a tiny bit. Larger pieces can be dyed if anybody wishes for cushions etc made from it just contact me.

The Big Textile Show

We are attending a 'Big Textile Show' this weekend and I have been working my backside off for it. There are hand dyed fabrics and threads all over the house! Only three more days to go and I bet I forget to take something, I usually manage to! There are piles of fabrics to sort, price tickets to make, displays to put together. The list seems never ending! I'm sure it will be fun, it usually is, its just the running around before hand thats tiring! I had better get on with it then!

Sewing club launch!!

I am launching a brand new sewing club in Wolverton, the first session begins October 7th.
Classes are every Monday from 7 - 9.30 and Tuesday 12 - 2.30

Come along and learn how to create and decorate fabulous textiles for the home and family, make new friends and learn new skills.

All ages (13+) and abilities welcome.
Learn all the basics; how to use a sewing machine, make new items or customise/alter your own. Or, try your hand at Textile Art and learn how to embellish using creative techniques such as fabric printing, free machine embroidery and appliqué.

If you would like more information please ring me on 07876140154 or take a look at my website www.scissorsncloth@rocketmail.com (will be updated soon).

Booking required due to limited places.

£10 per session all materials provided, discount given on block bookings.

Hopefully we will have lots of fun making colourful creative textiles using lots of different techniques.

Fresh from the printing table

The weather has gone from a glorious sunny week to a miserable cold few days. I seems like no sooner you put away your jumpers you are getting them out again! Almost like someone is trying to catch us out so they can point and laugh when we go out togged up for winter and the clouds part and we are left sweating in 30C sunshine! At least with the greyness outside it is a lot less tempting to be playing in the garden!

I have been playing indoors with a bit of fabric printing. They are all fat quarters, the fabric was dyed the other day in various ways. The second two are magenta but for some reason it hasn't shown up as nice as it really is. This fabric is printed with a very simple foam printing block which produces some nice vintage type results.

The fabric is destined for glasses case, which I am sure you would have worked out already!

Hand parfait dyed scarves

As you know I love the dyeing side of making fabric unique and my other favourite part is making stamps or lino blocks. I have decided to combine them both in a range of personalised printed scarves. I have a range of light weight scarves I have been bought over the years. I like them because they don't itch, you can wear them in summer when there's a little chill or in winter when its freezing. They tend to be rather long and wide and beg to be parfait dyed and printed. 

 Below is the first scarf I printed just for me. The colours are subtle on the grey which I think is a nice effect. 

The blue one has been created for my hairdresser featuring of course the tools of the trade, scissors and comb.

Below is a few of the colours to choose from and I will enjoy making the printing blocks on request. They will make ideal presents, every one needs a scarf or three don't they?!

Pretty patterns

One thing that did sell well at the craft fair the other day was my hand dyed fabric. I find the process really exciting. You can add the same colours, in the same order and come out with drastically different results everytime. I have been experimenting with tying the fabric in different ways, around objects or clamping it into different shapes and adding dye in different ways. Below are a selection of my recent experiments, some jar dyed, some folded and tied. I will be putting them on my website soon.

I also dyed some fabric for scarves and will be printing on some with some homemade blocks. Stay tuned folks!

Parfait dyeing ........take 2

Lots of dyeing took place the other day. I have always painted and have mixed colours in many different mediums so it intrigues me as to why I find the mixing and application of dye to fabric so fascinating. I think part of it is the way it takes on a life of its own. The technique of dyeing in plastic bags give fabrics a mottled texture, parfait dyeing creates unique fabrics with different colour combinations every time. If you just played with the same three colours you will always get a new and exciting combination of pattern and colour appear every time you emptied that jar.

Below are some of the parfait jars I set up and the resulting fabrics.

The fabric for the first jar is on the left of this photo, the piece on the right was just left over dye on wet fabric.

Yellow Magenta and Turqouise Parfait

Green, Orange and Purple Parfait

Orange Parfait Fabric

Purple Parfait

Green Parfait

Dyed fabric drying on the line

Fascinating stuff! I have bought wax and other things to play with so a whole new world is about to open up, watch this space!!

Bye for now.

Pretties...

I have a new love. I know I have shown you some bits before but I am now so taken with dyeing its unbelievable. It is so unpredictable but so much fun. I only have four lots of dye powder to play with magenta, yellow, turquoise and black, but the colour range is amazing!
I spent the day playing Saturday. There were bags and trays of dyed fabric every where, all round the kitchen in various stages of manipulation and colour application. Most of my dyeing was colour mixing, quite tame but as I am new to all this, very exciting!

A rainbow of colours!

 I worked through the dyes gradually adding different measurements to create the range of colours. Some of them look very close in colour but they all had different quantities so I could see the change in the colours. I was very methodical, which is highly unusual for me, I wrote down every thing so I could in theory go back and recreate the colour if I ever wanted to.

When I had a vast quantity of bags of dye everywhere I moved onto some parfait and tie dye.

The first cloth I folded into a concertina then folded in quarters, I then secured it with cotton tied tightly around it. Then I painted on dye with a paint brush the colours mixed on the cloth.

I should have taken some photos but I was far too excited! I will just have to do it again for you!

Concertina folded

The next one is my favourite piece, the colours have mixed really nicely and the shapes are quite striking.This  I folded into a concertina then triangles and secured it with spring loaded clamps. I then applied different coloured dye with a paint brush around the edges. 

Triangle folds

Parfait dyeing was next. Magenta, yellow and turquoise, its so unpredictable. You could use exactly the same colours, fabric and jar and have a completely different effect and colour range come out.

Parfait dyeing

My final piece was space dyed, I think that's what it is called. I placed the fabric onto a flat tray and puddled it in places then I started to add the dye splodging it on with a paint brush. I mixed the colours on the cloth with the brush and allowed it to dry in place so the folds would add some texture.

Space dyeing

Parfait Dyeing

If you have never Parfait dyed you don't know what your missing out on!

Parfait Jar

Its easy when you know how and the results are amazing!

Basically parfait dyeing is a way of adding different colours to a piece of fabric in a jar. The colours merge and mingle magically and produce an amazing piece of fabric.

In the jam jar we added one third of a long piece of presoaked calico, then we poured in the first concoction of the dye, salt and soda mixture, in this case the first dye was magenta. Now you wait patiently for ten minutes then add the second third of the fabric and second colour (yellow), ten minutes again and the third section of fabric went in and the final colour (blue). Now the hard part, you have to put the lid on and leave it alone and not fiddle with it for a whole 24 hours! 

The photograph of the jar shows the way the dyes have mingled and some of the blue granules of dye have fallen to the bottom. 

The result!!

After 24 hours if you can wait that long you need to rinse out any remaining dye with warm water. The fabric absorbs so much of the dye the liquid is almost clear.

I think the result is pretty amazing, especially if you are like me and find randomness a major trauma! 

I think it would make some lovely scarves!