Thursday, December 6, 2007

Resist dyed fabric

Oi! It's been a very long time since my last post. For those of you still in school, or who remember those days, you'll understand that the time between Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays is difficult. Luckily, the end is in sight! I finished my independent study on resist dyeing techniques, and have been putting my project binder together. It includes 55 pages filled with fabric swatches and library research on resist dyeing in Africa, India, Japan, and Indonesia. Last weekend I set up an indigo vat by myself for the first time. It took a little trial and error, but in the end I got good results for my starch resists. I found a very detailed indigo vat tutorial online here, for those of you who might like to try this someday. I would suggest setting it up outside or perhaps in a basement or garage. It's messy, and not something you want near anything you care about or might eat.

Here are a few images of some of the textiles I made:


Board clamped resist
Starch resisted king

Starch resisted elephant

I hope to make a triumphant return to sewing in January. I have this Burda dress on queue, as well as this Burda skirt. My Demi sweater is now almost half finished, and looking great!

3 comments:

ChezAristote said...

That Burda dress rocks. Did you get the pattern from subscribing to the magazine, or from an ordinary store?

I just followed some links from Ravelry to find your blog--you favorited my Forecast (thanks!). It's always cool to find another sewer/knitter!

Meghan said...

Hi Mary,

Hope you read this--I couldn't figure out how to find you on ravelry. It is great to find crafty like-minded people. It seems like there are more and more of us out there. The Burda patterns are in the Burda World of Fashion magazine from October 2007. It's my first time trying BWOF--I'll post more on my experiences when I complete the skirt. It is possible to buy just one magazine from some online shops, rather than the whole subscription. I think I got the Oct issue from sewbaby.com?

ChezAristote said...

Oh good. I'll have to brave the bad-tempered Frenchman who runs my town's downtown fabric store, because I think they get the magazine, as well as having regular Burda patterns. Good luck with your pattern--I'll look out for your advice. I'm really sold on that yoked jacket from the same photo shoot.

(I am ChezAristote on ravelry.)