Here it is, my indigo-dyed, shibori dress. I’m so in love with it.
When choosing the pattern for this project, I wanted to choose a fairly simple dress that had sleeves to show off the shibori pattern. Rather than try to cover the entire dress with the pattern, I focused on having it clustered around the bottom of all the pieces. To get the specific placement, I cut out all my pattern pieces out of white muslin, serged all the edges and did the shibori right on each dress piece.
The pattern is dress “V” from Stylish Dress Book 2. This is actually the first dress I’ve made from this book. I’m just finishing off a second one this week. Melinda made this particular dress a few months ago, so I already knew how cute it was. Choosing the contrasting fabric to go with it was difficult. I’m pretty sure I pulled every navy bolt of fabric off the shelf before finally settling on this floral print from Windham. I also made fabric covered buttons using this fabric for the placket. Having matching buttons always makes a project feel polished.
This dress was simple to make. It has lots of pretty gathering on the neckline and sleeves. I did mess up one part though. I failed to add seam allowance to the placket down the centre, so I had an extra big hole down the centre of the dress. To fix it, I just created a little centre pleat below the placket which brought together the edges of the placket hole. Mistakes often lead to creative solutions, so I always try to avoid getting too upset when I realize that I’ve done something ‘wrong’.
This is my favourite dress so far. I’m really, really proud of it. I definitely want to keep experimenting with natural dyeing fabrics to make more clothing. The soft, uneven texture looks so beautiful. I even have the beginnings of an idea to do a quilt with only natural dyed fabrics.
The last day of the Natural Dyeing class was all about indigo dyeing. I’ve always admired Japanese shibori dyeing, so I couldn’t wait to try it out in this class. Shibori is a method of creating patterns on fabric during the dyeing process by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing it.
I got the idea to dye fabric for a dress from Melissa and pre-cut and serged all my pieces beforehand. This way I could plan exactly where the shibori would be located on the dress. I used a pure white muslin rather than a natural coloured one to keep the blue clearer. To create my design I placed screws (of various sizes and shapes) underneath my fabric and wrapped each one up tightly with heavy upholstery thread. This is a fairly labour intensive type of shibori, but I really liked the circular patterns it creates.
Deeper blue colours are achieved through repeated immersion into the dye vat. I was able to dip my pieces into the vat four times. It’s a bit hard to tell what the colour will dry as, it is always much darker when it’s wet. When I unwrapped all the screws, several of them had transferred rust marks onto the fabric which I actually really like. The fabric dried to a really nice blue and I even like the slightly uneven colouring, it gives it a vintage feel.
Shibori tights? Yes, please!
Next post – the finished dress!
Natural dyeing is something I’ve been wanting to try for a very long time. The idea of one day growing things in my backyard that I can harvest and then dye my own fabrics with is incredibly exciting. When I browse through seed catalogs, I’m always taking note of the plants that are candidates for my future dye garden. When I caught wind that Julie Sinden had lots of amazing experience in the field, I set the wheels in motion to set up a class as quickly as possible.
The class was pretty magical. It opened up a whole new world of possibility with textiles and sewing for me. Just the history alone of where these natural dyes came from is so interesting. Also, natural dyes are not exactly what I thought – you can’t actually use beets to dye fabric or yarn, as it won’t last and neither will turmeric. Pomegranate skins will give you a yellow-ish colour, not pink or red. Rhubarb root, mushrooms, oak leaves and walnut husks are all possible dyes that I’m interested in trying. I’m cooking up some future dyeing projects for myself already.
The last day of the class we did indigo dyeing which is a post all on its’ own.
Just look at all this yummy colour!
Liberty of London Summer Challenge : Project 3
Leather Clutch with ‘Mirabelle’ Tana Lawn Cotton Lining
I’m not exactly sure how many snap coin purses have been made at the workroom, but besides the ‘Sewing Machine Essentials‘ class, it’s definitely been our most popular one. The next logical version was to do a clutch purse. To make it even more exciting, Reva thought to make it out of re-purposed leather. It’s a great use for all those thrift store leather jackets out there. One jacket can go a very long way.
I haven’t done a lot of sewing with leather, but I did make myself a simple leather wallet a couple years ago. There are a few tricks to learn to do it right. I used a simple black leather taken from a jacket that has really nice texture. For the lining, you need less than a fat quarter, so this is the perfect place to splurge on a really nice fabric. I chose the Liberty of London Mirabelle print, which we have finally received a replacement bolt of (the first bolt arrived damaged). This print is so pretty! I’ll definitely be making a dress or blouse from it as well. Just as soon as I can find the right pattern for it.
I’m also going to use this pattern to make some non-leather clutches, as well. This is the perfect size for an evening out and we’ve got a wedding to go to in August, that I’m contemplating creating a fancy dress for. (Liberty of London with matching clutch?)
I discovered a place in San Fransisco called ReMade USA that makes all their bags out of old jackets and leather scraps. This gives me great inspiration for some other re-purposed leather projects.
It’s the last day of my four day staycation. I’ve been busy whipping up some new dresses (Stylish Dress Book 2), finishing off some old projects (roman shade for the kitchen, watching girlie movies (What Happens in Vegas) and eating lots of candy (wine gums).
Back when Etsy came to Toronto, they asked if I would be interested in doing a Canada Day feature for them. I was totally honoured and overwhelmed. I didn’t realize just how hard it would be to narrow down my favourites to just twelve! It really made me realize how much incredible talent there is here in Canada. Seriously, you guys blow my mind almost every day.
You can see my little feature on Etsy here.
Happy Canada Day, everybody. I hope you had a lovely holiday.
Tomorrow, I’m officially back to work – which luckily happens to be one of the best jobs in the world.
