Monday, October 06, 2008

Complex Dyeing Days

I signed up to participate in a complex cloth round robin group in which the participants agreed to pass around approximately one yard of fabric (cotton, rayon, or silk) and each member would add another layer to the fabric, either by discharging, adding dye, adding paint, etc. I had hoped that I had retained a photo of my fabric (1 yard of rayon twill) when I sent it off on its journey, but I can't find one. Anyway, here it is when it returned to me today:

I am so thrilled with the results and I can't wait to participate in another round robin!!!

Here are some detail shots of my wonderful piece:



Now, the question is: what will I do with 1 yard of fabulous fabric?
What would you do?????
Cut it up???? Shush your mouth child!! I can't do that!!! Hmmmmmm! My saving grace, at least for a while is that Michele, one of the groupies, has been ill and wasn't able to lay her hands on my fabric, so it will not be complete until she does so. So, I have time to contemplate the cloth! Get well soon Michele!!!

I bought some muslin to construct a 'sloper' of Susan Conn Italo's Wild Onion Jacket. While I was cutting out the pattern, a little voice kept telling me that surely I wasn't going to 'just make a muslin sloper'! "What if it fit fabulously?" "Muslin is so blahhhh". "Why waste the time to sew up plain old muslin???" So, after the muslin was cut, I soaked it in some soda ash and then poured on the dyes. I think that was last Thursday, but it may well have been Friday (I was trying to escape from dinner party preparations and you know how that is!!). We went away for the weekend and when I got out to the studio this afternoon: wooops, there it was! I had laid it out on some plexiglass and covered it with a dry cleaner bag, and it was still sopping wet! So, here it hangs, dripping and hopefully drying on the line. Can you see the little bit of sumac that is growing up below the lower right hand part of the jacket? It sort of blends with my dyes!

Hopefully it will be dry in the morning and I'll steam it a bit and then wash it and get busy with construction.
But alas: the lining!!! I soaked it in soda ash this afternoon and dyed it....so, tomorrow it will dry and then,
only then, it will all be steamed and constructed!!! I am excited about this jacket, and will definitely keep you posted!

Yesterday afternoon we attended a beautiful organ recital at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, supported and funded by the Musica Sacra Atlanta. The organist was none other than David Burton-Brown, organist at our church, Grace Church Gainesville. David did a fabulous job and we were enthralled by his music. Afterwards C and I enjoyed some time in the Botanical Gardens with our friends Polly and Jeff, and later dinner at one of our favorite haunts: Top Flr. What fun!!!

Oh, and I voted today...........for whom? You Guessed It!!!


PEACE, HOPE CHANGE: OBAMA/BIDEN!!!

5 comments:

Gerrie said...

The RR fabric is gorgeous. I think you should make a jacket. I am interested to see how the onion jacket turns out.

Jeanne Turner McBrayer said...

Great minds think alike...I was planning to do the exact thing with a muslin version of the Wild Onion, but thought I might paint the muslin with Setacolor paints in case it turns out to be wearable!

Your RR fabric is stunning...can't imagine that it needs anything else!

Corryna said...

The fabric is fantastic! I wish I had it here :-). Do you know the blog of Laura? I think you might like it. You can find her in the list of links on my blog.

Corryna

Lora Martin said...

Hey Judy! I got so busy for awhile, I couldn't even think so I am having a marathon of reading your blog posts tonight.

Beautiful sloper!

We voted on Tuesday at our house and you know who we voted for, too.

Margarita Korioth said...

Judy I just saw your RR5 complex cloth and I'm glad you liked it. If you want I can loan you my silkscreen ,the one I used in your fabric if you want to do a matching fabric so you can sew something beautiful.
Let me know,
regards Marga