I’m
back for part 2 of my summer skirt.
See part 1 where I dyed some
plain fabric.
Making
up the skirt
I
made up a simple wrap skirt with my dyed fabric, using darts to give
some waist shaping and two buttons and pieces of ribbon as a fastening.
You
need one back piece and two front pieces. Each of the three pieces needs to be
half your waist measurements across the top once the darts are made.
I
like to finish side seam raw edges with pinking scissors to avid them
fraying.
Turn over a small hem on the two free front edges and then a slightly larger hem around the bottom.
I
made a strip to add a narrow waistband.
First, this is stitched right sides to the top of the skirt. The seam was pressed towards the band and the top of the band was pressed down 1cm.
Both ends were folded right sides together and stitched.
Turn out to make neat ends.
Stitch the folded over waistband in place.
Make a couple of buttonholes, and stitch on buttons and ribbon ties. I like to use the magic pen to mark the position of the buttonholes before stitching.
Nice
enough but I wanted to create a design for a truly unique skirt. My
deliberations included whether to create a floral or feather design,
and whether to use block printing or screen printing to make the
design. I sketched a little in my notebook and tried out ideas on
some spare fabric.
Earlier
this month I visited the Quilt festival at the NEC and the
Colourcraft stand. Lovely to chat to the friendly folk there and I
also fell for the fancy feathers stencils which come in two sizes. I
also got a Colouricious feather wooden printing block. I want to
create a feather design now!
Dye
Paste Mixing
This contains a 15g pot of manutex,
which is
a seaweed-based thickener that can be used to make Procion MX dyes
into a print/paint paste. (Note:
Manutex is also
known as Reactive Stock Paste).
You
can mix the 4 teaspoons of powder in 1 pint of cold water and mix
thoroughly. You can use a hand blender to make sure the paste has no
lumps and is the right consistency. Leave to stand (Note: this paste
only lasts a few weeks and can be kept fresher in the fridge. Discard
if there is mould or smell.
The starter pack also contains urea. Urea slows the drying process and
therefore allows more time for the dye to react with the fibre,
yielding deeper shades. So I decided to dissolve 1 tablespoon of the
urea in a cup of boiling water. I strained this and then sprinkled on
2 teaspoons of manutex. I labelled a tub and put the date of mixing.
I
can then spoon out a little of this mixture into a palette
tray to then add different dye colours to
make up a palette of colours.
A tiny amount of dye powder makes a strong colour, but check on a scrap
fabric first.
Note:
when using the dye powders it is advisable to use a mask eg. the
disposable
Valved Respirator Mask FFP3 (For fine toxic dust/mists/fumes
with 2 elastic looped retainers conforms to EN149)
Printing
using the Stencil
Using
my Procion MX dye mixed with my manutex paste, I
brushed
colour
through the feather stencil. The colours will mix as you do this
unless you leave each bit to dry in-between colours. Similar colours
on the colour wheel will give nice mixes. Be careful not to mix too
many colours though and get a brown grunge colour! Trying out on a
scrap of fabric first is a good policy.
If
you want to do more than the front of a skirt, then using the stencil
with a screen would speed up the process.
I'm sorry. I got so involved with this that i forgot to take a photo!
Block
Printing
Set
up a printing station with protective sheet then some thin foam to
help the printing process.
Lay
fabric onto this ready for printing.
Load
up sponge block with dye paste and apply to the wooden block design.
Ensure good coverage but avoid excess paint in the grooves. Now
you’re ready to turn the block over and place down on the fabric.
Push
and rock side to side a little. Keep hands in place for a couple of
seconds to let the dye paste soak onto the fabric. It’s a good idea
to stand up to block print as it gives a bit more power to your arms!
(It’s
also a good idea to do a practice print for each block as often the
first one doesn’t work so well. The wood seems to soak up the
paint).
Wash
your block with soap and water, with a scrubbing brush. Always wash
your printing blocks after use; the sooner the better, so that it’s
easier to get the paint off.
On
both the stencil and block, I added a little copper metallic fabric paint
with a small brush.
Fixing
After
stamping spray on a solution of soda
ash.
I added 6 tablespoons of soda ash (in the starter pack) to my 1litre
bottle of water. Note: there is no need to rush to spray your newly
printed design, as the dye will stay inert in the fabric. However,
make sure you know that you have sprayed with the soda ash solution
before washing.
As
an extra heat fix, I baked my skirt in the oven for 5 minutes at
150°C.
I then cool rinsed on its own in the washing machine to make sure
any unfixed dye was removed. You can use Colsperse
scouring agent to aid this.
Fibre
reactive dye is the most permanent of all dye types. Unlike other
dyes, it actually forms a covalent bond with the cellulose or protein
molecule. Once the bond is formed, what you have is one molecule, as
the dye molecule has become an actual part of the cellulose fibre
molecule. So you can safely wash a garment that has been dyed in
bright fibre reactive colours
in your normal wash load.
So
I’m ready to wear my personalised skirt.
I
would love to hear about your dying and printing adventures, so
please do comment below.
Helen
x
