Dye! Dye! Dye! (Part 2)

What can I say?  I'm hooked on dyeing.  Spend $15.00 to transform a bunch of sad, stained, but generally sturdy garments into beautifully renewed and beautifully hued new wearables?  Heck, yes!  Take the above -- grimy white booties, a lovely but see-through skirt, a splotched top...add a few items that were sadly stained by an errant red dishcloth....All are things that it seems silly to get rid of, but probably wouldn't even be accepted by Goodwill in their current state.  Dye to the rescue!  I went with the pricier i-Dye from the get-go this time, having learned my lesson about cheaper dyes during my earlier forays.

Olive green is one of my favorite colors; even though I really loaded the machine up with clothing, the end result was a wonderful, deep green.  The darker color was a good choice for covering up more persistent stains.
 

Such an easy, satisfying project.  With the i-Dye, the washing machine does all of the work for you --   pulling your clothing out at the end is a bit like Christmas.   It always feels good to find a way to continue to use something rather than discard it at the first sign of trouble.  Me: 1, household stains and red dishcloths: 0.

Dye! Dye! Dye!

Let it be said: I'm not much of a pink person.  However, as indicated by a few items of mysteriously pink clothing lingering in storage, this may not have always been the case.  I unearthed three pieces that would be perfectly fine, cute even, if only they weren't so.....well, pink. (Pink lovers, don't abandon me now!  Pink certainly has its merits -- just not on me.)

Pink, meh.  But red -- hey!  I like red!  Pink and red are closely related -- dying from one color to the other should work, right?   Well yes, sort of.  It took three attempts to get the shade I was after.  Mexican Red -- not really so red.  Tulip red -- also, not particularly red.  Finally, crimson -- mostly, pretty much red.  I now know that I may have been using too much material with my first two laundry-sink attempts.  (Word to the wise, when they say to use rubber gloves, they mean it.   Also, probably best not to wear your favorite sweater when working with dye.  Not that I would know anything about that.)  I ended up spending a bit more money in this revamp than I anticipated, but once I got going I was determined to make these things wearable, darnit!

I'm happy with the final shade -- still a hint of pink, but a really rich, vibrant hue that certainly leans more toward red.  Definitely wearable.   Definitely deserving of a future outside the storage boxes.

I love how the dye hasn't stuck to any of the synthetic material -- in this case the stitching and embroidery.

Hooray, success!  Now I'm inspired to dole out a few more dye jobs -- what will emerge next from those deep, deep storage boxes? 

**This is the day of the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway....   I will let the random number generator work it's magic at 4pm NZ time.  Good luck to all of you!!**

Tank Dress

Oh!  How I love this little girl.   As she grows and becomes more upright, it's been fun to dress her in a few, well, dresses.   Because she inherits most of her older brother's clothing, and I'm happy to have her in primarily gender-neutral blues, greens, grays, reds and browns, I realize that I may sometimes need to make a special effort to embrace her feminine side as well.  Thus was born this dress -- the first I've made for baby A.  It's the product of another storage-box upcycle -- a tank I love, but which is seldom worn.    I simply trimmed a band at the waist to make it shorter, added three pleats to the neck, and hemmed along the inner arm holes to make them child-size.  Finally, I added ribbons to bring the waist in a bit.  I'm liking the results, and I'm happy to think that this dress will fit for quite a while -- through the toddler years, becoming a tunic as my girl gets bigger.

Amazingly, our autumn days still warm up enough for this dress to be worn on it's own; but it would also be easy to pair this with leggings and a cardigan in the coming months.  Yes, it's been good to celebrate a bit of femininity!  I can see more of these to come.

P.S.... My Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway will be continuing for two more days.  To all those that have left comments and have become followers, likers, or fans -- thank you so much!  It's wonderful to connect with so many new people.   I'll be hosting a giveaway of a different sort to celebrate 100 fans on Facebook, and over 60 followers on the blog; it will begin immediately after my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway ends.  Details to come.

Waste Not....

Even with our stringent de-cluttering policies, we are guilty (er, I am guilty) of letting a few plastic storage boxes of clothing I can't quite part with waste away in our garage.   I did a little digging this week and resurrected a once-loved top and a once-perfect, oft-repaired pair of favorite jeans.  The long sleeves of the top became these super-simple baby leggings  (forgive the grainy rainy-day exposure....)

And the jeans transformed like this....

I'll be honest, making these was a bit harrowing -- I wouldn't recommend denim or this type of stretchy cotton/lycra material to a newbie seamstress like me.  It's a miracle that both the machine and I survived!  I certainly honed my G-rated expletive range during this project.  The center photo is of S assisting with a gentle, soothing touch to appease the sewing machine.  It must have worked, since she allowed me to finish both projects with only the small casualty of a broken needle. Worth the sacrifice to breathe new life into these old favorites.....

Just quickly, a few photos from the shed/studio revamp:

The walls are up!  I think I'll be able to get in and do some painting in the next week.  Can't wait.

Hey, I could do that....

Ever have this thought?  I do -- increasingly often.  Usually, it's the result of extreme optimism paired with lack of experience.  But sometimes, just sometimes, it's true.   Today I sewed my very first item of clothing for myself.  It helps that I have no perfectionist tendencies when it comes to sewing, but I'm feeling happy with the results.

I remember a quote from Amy Karol's "Bend the Rules With Sewing" that goes (and I'm totally paraphrasing here) "You have to be good enough to know when you can bend the rules."  I must say, this quote doesn't apply to me at all.  It's more like, "If you don't know any of the rules, you just make up your own (and make a lot of mistakes along the way.)"   I am a beginner's beginner when it comes to sewing -- I'm not one of those crafty ladies that learned to sew perched atop my great-grandmother's knee.   In fact, it took me about a year after buying my machine to even learn how to thread it properly.  I'm not sure I should admit that publicly, but there you have it.....

I've been lurking for a while -- admiring others' handiwork, reading crafty blogs and books, and buying handmade clothing when possible.  I've been warming up with smaller projects -- quilts, bibs, pot holders; our resident doll, "baby" has a stunning wardrobe selection.   Finally, this blog inspired me to take the plunge.  The blog is a photo journal of a woman in Canada who has pledged to wear only what she makes herself (including shoes, underwear and the like) for a year.  Believe me, I didn't think "Hey, I could do that...."  But I did think that maybe I could begin to make some of my clothes....

I began with a soft cotton jersey fabric that's been lingering in my stash; I found it incredibly forgiving, with just the right amount of stretch. I just cut the shape I envisioned (no patterns yet for this no rules-er), sewed along the inner seams, and added a gather in the middle.  I didn't finish any of the edges, which was fine by my standards.

SO satisfying.  The skirt?  Another no-rules experiment (without sewing involved this time....)  I began with a secondhand top, the stripey-ness of which I love, but with an unflattering neckline....

A little work with a rotary cutter (much smoother than scissors) right under the armpits, and a sporty little number perfect for autumn layering was revealed.

Next: learn how to take self-portraits without angles that make the viewer dizzy.  I'm sure it's doable.

Inward Bound

In Nelson, we are having a truly spectacular autumn.   I love how this season refocuses our energy inward.  We spend more time indoors, and I notice myself yearning to rearrange, refurbish, re-purpose, and just generally improve our living areas. 

I've been taking a brief respite from Seedling pursuits to focus on some home and family projects - - trying to tackle a few of the items on my never-ending projects-I'd-like-to-do list.....First up, pillow friends.  I first saw this project in Amy Karol's "Bend the Rules With Sewing" -- so simple, so cute!  I used up some fabric scraps, some leftover textile paints, and voila: new friends (and yes, the car is pink -- no gender stereotypes here!)

Next, the creation of some fine art.  Our walls have been sadly bare for some time now -- we didn't move here with much, and I have a difficult time choosing and buying artworks worthy of display.    A few years ago, I found a pile of canvasses for a dollar each at a yard sale.  Seeing great potential, but without a vision, they've remained in storage for nearly three years.  I pulled them out recently to give them an undercoat of white.....

Then S worked his magic....

The end result -- artwork we are proud to display and love to look at....

Next up, I'm getting ready to tackle that pile of merino.  It's so gorgeous that I think I'm hesitating, waiting until my sewing skills vastly improve.  But, eh, that may be awhile -- and it's getting chilly!  So, simple merino projects to come....

This Week: Projects

This was one of those weeks where sick kids, nap-less babies, and things liked dental appointments (in other words: life) prevailed.  When I finally got one child to bed, the other one inevitably woke.  Thus, work was eeked out in tiny increments -- 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there.  Fortunately, the bibs I began last week are an easy crafting fix.  Bibs, bibs, and more bibs.  How many does one baby need?  Probably not nearly as many as I've made.  However, they'll make great gifts, and I'm sure a few will end up with a new nephew soon enough.

All those bibs have left a lot of leftover fabric scraps.....with winter fast approaching I felt inspired to make my first patchwork quilt-cover for S's new "big kid" bed.   This is my first attempt at anything like this and I was gratified to find that it was a relatively simple, quick project.  Two evenings, max.

For the top, I used large alternating strips of cotton and corduroy, and on the back, a light-weight cotton canvas.  It snaps at the bottom and inside is a large fleece-y folded blanket.  Super warm and cozy.  Winter, do your worst.

This weekend we got around to a few bigger projects; S had his first try at painting a wall, and subsequently asked to do a bit of painting on his own.....

Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out a creative way to re-use the paint-chip cards we seem to acquire by the handful whenever we undertake a painting project.  This worked well; first, some work with the scissors done by bigger hands:

Followed by some pasting, placing, and multi-media artwork done by little hands:

Beautiful!  As soon as that last coat dries, this will be hung in our newly-painted bathroom.

Sewn: For the Baby....

 

This was a wonderfully satisfying and simple project -- new bibs for baby A, who is just beginning to enter the wide, wonderful world of solid foods.  I used corduroy and cotton, combining colors and fabrics to add interest and beauty to a functional item. 

I imagine A will have a lot of fun getting these really good and dirty in the months ahead.