A shirt from shirts…from upcycled and dyed shirts! And it has a cat and books to boot. I wore this last night and it was most fun to get totally unsolicited compliments. YAYAY!!
Upcycled tees
Wow Meow
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Switch Gears
Time to switch gears.
I’ve been posting about dyeing and using natural dyes. I’ve searched my backyard and I’ve walked the neighborhood. I’ve purchased dyes that were sustainable, and shipped from the other side of the world. Fun to see what plants and some critters (cochineal) can do on fiber. Here’s a shirt that’s pieced using indigo dyed fabric.
But after a while, I realized that most of what I was getting from my backyard was backyard yellow. Yup, nice colors and fun to collect. Combined with other dyes they give greens and oranges. But, mostly yellows.
One day it occurred to me that I missed that burst of color that synthetic dyes give. Bright colors. Instant gratification.
So, I’m back to using synthetics. Bright colors. Combining lights and darks. Mixing and matching.
Catalyst for Change
And, along the way I got into t-shirts, especially upcycled tees. I’ve been rediscovering shibori–folding, tyeing, pressing to get patterns.
That’s fun. And, the words and pictures on tee-shirts. What fun to combine the words and graphics. More funky!
Here’s one that is most appropriate–Catalyst for Change.
So, onward to new fun!
Indigo pieces become a jacket
Sampling techniques and colors, I end up with a collection of small bits. When the bag gets big enough, my quilting/piecing genes take over and I make something from the small pieces! Using a run of indigo-shibori, I pieced a jacket:
Indigo-shibori pieces
Indigo-shibori pieced
Here’s the front of the jacket, with a fetching peplum!! The stitching was random shapes.
And, the back, with fold and pole-wrapped. The darker color was an overdye–indigo over backyard (pale) yellow.
Here’s the collection, pre-piecing, complete with pre-pressing wrinkles
Pieced pieces, naturally!
More pieced pieces…using small shibori’d squares dyed using natural dyes–many from my backyard.
I call this one my Dandy Blouse because it’s dyed with dandelions. I must be the only person in my neighborhood who welcomes the bright yellow sign of spring!
Dandelion, indigo and coreopsis shibori blouse
There are various shibori/folding techniques dyed with dandelion flowers on the left side of the Dandy Blouse. Mostly “spider circles.” One square is dandelion over-dyed with indigo to give a light green color.
The right wide is bolder, indigo dyed. Mostly from folded piece, with squares and triangles. The folds give great contrast with the dark blue and white. The collar was done with a scrunchy fold, called the donut; that’s one of my favorite folds.
How about this for an urban cowgirl! Rarin’ to go!
Honeysuckle and indigo jacket
The pieces for this jacket were dyed with honeysuckle (the leaves) and indigo.
The right side is a different version of the folded technique–squares and triangles.
On the left sleeve, there are white marks remained after using small clamps. And, the collar and right sleeve were pole (arashi) wrapped.
The fringe has beads–to give some bling and weight!
And, of course, Happy appears when the camera comes out. Her shadow looks like a terrier!! But, she’s pure “Happy dog!”
Odds and Ends 1, Coreopsis and Indigo
Coreopsis is my all-time favorite back yard dye plant. It’s a great flower in the garden–all sunny yellow and carefree. And, it gives a wonderful orange dye color. Very unexpected from the yellow flower.
Coreopsis and Indigo dyed, with shibori techniques
I took some pieces that I’ve been dyeing and made up a shirt-Odds and End 1. I started the summer with a series of shibori pieces, using different plants. Some small (6 x 6) and some larger–1/4 yard. And, the pieces were posted on my wall. A nice collection and in my mind, the start of a pieced quilt, but, they never left the wall. So, things changed and evolved into garments. Here’s the first one…
Since it’s a collection of smaller pieces, I named it Odds and Ends 1. Indigo was added to the mix — it’s not from my backyard. (But technically it COULD be!) Using shibori techniques. There was bunching to get the pieces that make up the diamond. And the blue stripes was a pole wrapped piece. The top of the shirt was a larger piece that had the spider circles that made tie dye famous or infamous!
Coreopsis and Indigo dyed, with shibori techniques
The back of the shirt has a better view of the spiders. And, the left side has a piece that was folded and folded and then dipped so the edges took the indigo color.
(And, of course, Happy, is in the project–her ear (well a shadow) is captured in the lower left corner of the pic of the front!)
Beet it!
Yesterday, I cooked up a pot of 
beets and that red/purple water was so inviting. Not for a swim-dip, but for a dye-dip! I put in a piece of treated cotton (treated with aluminum acetate.) And, yum…the fabric turned a lovely pink shade.
Great!! I’m loving this!
For the final step, I rinsed the excess. And. Aaaargh…the pink went down the drain. Leaving my fabric barely colored. This is what they mean by fugitive color–it runs away!!
Ah well, I dipped it again, dried it, without a rinse. I’ve been working with beeswax/encaustic to preserve fabric collages. This will be a great candidate. Anyway, the beets were great eating!!
My friend Deb suggested using eggplant–the nice purple one. I’ll be trying that for dyeing soon!
Yellows and gold
I made up a yellow pot, yesterday to get a subtle, mottled cloud look. I started with some crown vetch (CV)…that large pink-clover that’s 
used to stop erosion on a hill. CV grows fast and provides quick coverage. Once planted, it’s almost impossible to get out of the garden. I know gardeners who reserve special swear words for this pushy plant 🙂 I used a piece of cotton that had been treated with aluminum acetate then crumpled in a ball and tied with twine.
I put it in the pot of CV that I had heated in water. After a bit, I noticed that the fabric was gold on one side only. I turned it in the pot, and left it in the dye liquor, hoping to get more color. But, no, after more minutes, there was LESS color.
Dye lesson relearned. Heating hotter and heating longer won’t add color. I assume that there’s a fragility to the natural dye–a botanist/chemist would have the real answer. I think that the sugars giving the color are lost with too much heat.
So, then I added some white ash leaves to the 
dye liquor and heated them. I tested the white ash “fruit” and found that there was no available color. So, I just added leaves to the dye pot. Usually this gives a deep gold/yellow. I put my fabric into the pot and got very little added color.
I remember one time, later in the summer when I used white ash leaves and the color was very strong. Might be that it’s too early???
So, next, I gathered some Queen Anne’s Lace (QAL). Just a small amount, heated (lightly) in a small pot. I crammed in my two bundles of fabric. At last, success, I got the color that I wanted. QAL gives a bright yellow.
Too funny…backyard yellow is the most common color in MY backyard and yesterday, I had to work hard to get it!
Honeysuckle (hybridized) and Holy Basil
It’s spring and the garden is blooming with old and new favorites. Even the weeds are welcomed after the long winter that we had this year!
Honeysuckle–hybridized
The honeysuckle bush/vine in my garden is different than the one that grows all over. The wild one has a white flower and it’s so prolific that it seems like one GIANT plant.
The one in my garden has a pretty orange bloom and is better behaved.
Honeysuckle–hybridized
The color that it gives is similar to the wild honeysuckle. In the same backyard yellow vein.
Holy Basil
A new visitor to my garden came from a local farmer. They call it Holy Basil with a bloom like the tall phlox. And in the peak of it’s bloom it was covered in bright yellow/gold blooms. A standout at this time of year. After enjoying it, I harvested some of the blooms and dyed with it.
Holy Basil
A nice bright yellow…a bit more golden.
And, the plant has many seed pods. Maybe filled with many, many seeds. Left to it’s own devices, I could have a garden full of this gold visitor! HOLY BASIL!!
Bidens or Coreopsis
With the winter that we’ve had,
I’m eager to get out in the garden and add some color. I stopped at a local nursery and found this delightful plant, Bidens–Sun Drop. It’s new to me…looks like a Potentilla or daisy or aster. What attracted me was the sunny yellow color.
It’s described as an annual that likes full sun. And, it found a nice home in the front of the house.
But, surely, it’s more than a pretty face, so I put it to work!! I grabbed a few flowers. My expectation was low, maybe some backyard yellow. And, to my surprise…
My favorite coreopsis orange. WAHOO!! So, I went to the source of all information (not t.h.e. oracle, but t.h.e. google) and there’s some indication that this plant is related to the coreopsis. It has a leaf that’s close to Moonbeam c., but a flower that’s like Tickseed c.
Whichever…it’s a new favorite of mine!!
Willow twigs in the Spring
Is there a dyeing seasonal schedule? That was a question posed in a natural dyeing blog that I receive. Well, of course, if you dye from leaves and flowers…follow their schedule. But, what about now when it’s early spring and not much has unfurled yet. How about sap rising as part of that season?
So, here’s my experiment with early willow which is growing in a “ditchy area” in my neighborhood.
Willow twigs
I gathered some willow sticks. The buds are just starting to get fat, so, logically, the sap should be rising. No leaves yet. I cut the sticks into six inch lengths and put them in a dye pot; covered them with water. I brought them to a simmer and turned off the heat so the pot stays hot for a bit. Not much color.
So, the next morning, I repeated the process. Not much color. So much for rising sap.
But, I had put some effort into this pot of willow twigs so, I repeated the process over the next days. Sometimes heating them a couple times a day. Sometimes, letting the pot go to a boil. After a few days, the water was darker and my sample fabric was showing a bit of color. So, I kept repeating the process.
Here’s the result after a week of periodic heating. I shibori-dyed a piece of cotton that had been prepared with aluminum acetate. It’s a pleasant tan color, with the hint of pink that is mentioned with willow.
Happy in the sun into the sun. OOOPS!!
Happy, the wonder dog….has to get in the middle of any picture. She’s not trying to be sultry…she’s looking into the sun. OOOPS!!
