Crepe de Chine scarves in the window, utilizing the sun for solar dyeing.
Above: Red and yellow onions skins wrapped tightly in the scarf and then stuffed into a Mason jar.
Below: Pomegranate to the right. Cranberry to the left.
Tag Archives: scarf
Scarf Sent
My lovely winner got back to me last week so I sent her off her scarf. Can’t wait to hear what she thought of it.
Crumby gray weather here, no sun for days. Had a different thought for the silk pieces but I’m not sure if it will turn out. Hopefully I can see if it’s possible sometime this week.
Have a wonderful new recipe for you next week. Someone gave us copious quantities of black olives so I made up a Tapenade {pronounced tap-e-nod, but only if your snobby :) I call it tap-e-nade like lemonade}.
Hope your week turns out sunny and lovely!
Win My Scarf – One of a Kind, All Natural, Wearable Art
While we’re moving…
In honour of you, my dear reader, I have decided to do my first giveaway.
During the month of August hit the “follow” button in the tool bar to follow the blog and leave a comment for me at the end of this post.
You will be eligible to win this….
One eco dyed Flat Crepe Silk Scarf 13” x 70”
This was the first proper leaf print that I did in my whole new ecobundling adventure. It made me so happy!
My husband said to describe the colours as “of the forest” – the base is a silvery grey with green/gold accents. But there are so many slight variations of colour that I don’t even know how to describe. Hopefully your monitor will give you as true a rendition as possible.
I hemmed it myself so there will be variations in the stitching.
Do not wash it unless you have to. If you do, rinse it in cold water with a mild detergent and iron to dry if you want it smooth. If you prefer the crinkly look, twist it and let it air dry.
This is a completely one of a kind piece of wearable, natural art. Expect the colours to subtly morph over time as you wear it and wash it.
I hope that you enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
There will be a draw August 31 and I will contact the winner for their mailing information.
Any Ideas?
I keep looking at my silk lengths that I would like to finish up into the scarves and wraps they were meant to be. But I don’t know what will work best.
Any ideas?
Rolled hems, or regular hems, or serged edges, or some people even leave them raw though I don’t like how much they fray.
I would appreciate any suggestions :)
Thanks in advance!
Stitches
I accidentally snipped the silk when I cut the string off that bound the bundle.
Oh, me!
What to do? What to do?
Then I remembered the lovely stitching so many of the crafty ladies have shown on their blogs like Wendy from Threadborne
http://wendyfe.wordpress.com/tag/surface-design/
So here’s my hole design, which led to other stitches…
The Final Dye for Dharma
After fooling around with my free Dharma scarf for several dye baths I decided I wanted a finished piece to give my Mummy.
So, seeing as she loves the colour red I thought I’d use the purple sandcherry, which gives redish dye and throw in some dried oregano that I had for good measure. I was going to add red onion skins but I completely forgot.
I spritzed down the scarf with my half and half vinegar and water mix and then laid out the purple sandcherry and dried oregano alternately
This was steamed in the water from the last steaming – now a murky black liquid, I think the iris drippings reacted with the iron overnight and continuous steamings – for half an hour and then allowed to cool before it was unrolled.
The resulting colour was again nothing like I expected.
Again came the blue greens where I thought I would have reds and purples.
Please some one help me out! Is it the alum? The iron? The hodge podge mix?
Not that I minded the resultant glorious dark green with blacks, midnight blues and purply reds in spots.
I was going to let the scarf dry but then thought I would iron it to heat set the colour. A good rinse came next and I thought I was going to lose all the colour because of the amount that came out in the water. A lot of the bluer greens came out and it toned down quite a bit but there was more than enough colour remaining for me.
The iron was applied a second time and then a final rinse.
I’m so pleased I tried the oregano. It turned out beautifully.
The first 9 pictures are unwashed and then the last 3 are of the scarf in its final ness
Bundle the Last
This 15 x 45 was prepared the same way as the others and then had an assortment of dried leaves, date pits, avocado skins, eucalyptus from the previous dye and rusty bits added to it. I had also soaked some green tea leaves and threw those in too.
Bundled, steamed, cooled, unrolled, dryed.
Bundle the Second
This 15 x 45 was treated the same way as the first, spritzed with water/white vinegar and then layed out with foliage and such.
Into this bundle went red onion skins, odds and ends of frozen flowers used in the last piece, some eucalyptus from the original dye, some dried, random leaves and some rusty bits. Again it was rolled around a giant hunk of rusted iron and steamed for an hour, then let cool and unrolled.
Y voila!
Bundle the First
Took one piece 15 x 45 and spritzed it all over with half and half vinegar and water.
Then I sprinkled frozen purple irises, pansies and tulips, fresh purple columbine and blue lupins, dried rose hips, grape hyacinths and wild grapes and rusty bolts, washers and nuts through it. The piece was folded in half and rolled round a giant hunk of rusted iron.
This was steamed for an hour in water with a splash of vinegar in my handy dandy steamer with the other bundles.
Pictures of the piece are wet and dry but not rinsed yet. I’m kind of afraid to loose all that lovely colour :)
Sidepoint: I expected the iris to make a lovely purple as it was an incredible dark purple iris. It did not though, well, not what I expected. It’s still a gorgeous colour but more blue/green and I wonder if this doesn’t have something to do with the fact that the silk was mordanted in alum. In reading about how to make ink with iris – what a lovely thought, notes written in that purple of an ink! – I came across this post that explained that iris with alum makes iris green an ancient and highly prized ink colour.
http://sunsikell.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/green-from-blue/
Rather cool that my silk is dyed with it I think!
3 Bundles
After dyeing the silk it was divided in half – 2 pieces 72 x 45 inches.
Then one piece was divided again into 3 pieces 15 inches wide.
Here are the bundles. Actual content and more pictures to follow.
To Dye
Plunged into dyeing.
Mordanted my flat crepe silk with alum and then started in.
For the Dharma scarf I had frozen some different flowers – pansies, irises, forget-me-nots, petunias, tulips, etc. Also added some whole green tea leaves and eucalyptus{not sure the genus} that had been soaking for about a week {I had kind of forgotten about it}. And my rusty bits.
Then the flat crepe had the same frozen flowers, eucalyptus, green tea and also the remains of a bouquet someone had given us in the winter when we were sick. I had saved the petals in leaves. Also some dried leaves from the garden – wild rose, balsalm poplar, birch, willow, raspberry and I can’t remember what else.
Steamed it for about an hour in my makeshift steamer – enamelled pot with hunk of iron in the bottom to stop the fabric from actually sitting in water.
Let it cool completely and then unrolled it all, had read somewhere that rust remaining on fabric can ruin it. Not sure how long it takes so thought i should pull them to bits sooner than later.
Very lightly dyed but some lovely leaf prints that I’m very pleased with and some lovely purples. Not sure the colorfastness though. We’ll have to see.
Freeform Crochet Scarf out of Vintage Cotton
Long hours in front of the computer or scrunched up scribbling during the research process often made my brain feel like squish. So I had to take a break now and then to actually do something and give my brain a rest.
I had been working on a bit of freeform crochet for a creative outlet.
My motherinlaw gave me some lovely vintage Phildar cotton from France. The colour is absolutely fantastic. I wanted to make a version of a scarf I had seen in Slovenia, a country well known for their beautiful lace. The only problem is that I can`t ever seem to make a pattern come out right and I really didn`t want to ruin this wonderful gift.
In looking around for other options I chanced upon freeform crochet. How can you go wrong when there really are no rules and no pattern? It was perfect.
The cotton is so thin that my hands would ache after working on it for awhile so it took me about 6 months to complete it. But finally I did and am very pleased with the end result.
