I think Caroline had the best fortnight here. The day she left it rained and it has been raining ever since. Rain on its own isn't so bad unless it's a downpour but there has been quite gusty spells of wind which hasn't done the plants any good. Fortunately I have had enough to keep me occupied in the house so the inclement weather hasn't been too much of a problem. As Caroline was leaving here to go to a camp at Avebury for the summer solstice I feel very sorry for her. It can't be much fun to have two small children and a large husband in a camper van in the pouring rain! Glastonbury this coming weekend looks as though it will be par for the course with mud, mud and even more mud. Gone are the days when I thought Festivals were fun! Now I'm old and crabby! :-)
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The photo printing has gone well albeit that it was done on my old HP printer. The new Epsom that I bought especially to do this because the paper doesn't turn on itself during printing, failed to accept the fabric-paper combination. I didn't have time to fiddle so will have to have another go later. I used to do it very successfully on my old Epsom so I can't see why this one doesn't work. I hate printers anyway! But at least with an Epsom printer I can now use my Epsom scanner to copy with. It wouldn't work with any other make of printer on the copy facility. So I now have a printer-scanner set up with my laptop upstairs and ditto but HP downstairs. I think that's what one would call overkill. When I've finished this project I have some ideas for using photo printed fabric and will try them out. I've been taking photos so that I'm ready.
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This weekend I am going to do some dyeing as my new dyes have arrived. Some yellows that I haven't used before which will be fun. I have bought some plastic so that I can stack pieces. My method of dyeing is very quick and simple and ideally suited to working in a small confined area. I either work on acrylic sheets or in small plastic tubs. Either way there is no hassle. On the sheets I can dye paint if I want and in the tubs, which vary in size, I can mix as well as folding in different ways. When the fabric has cured in the dye I then rinse it out immediately in cold water (a rough rinse) and then stick in the washing machine where it gets a hot, very hot, wash and lots of rinses. Then it hangs to dry or I iron it wet. Even wet being ironed on a white cloth there is no leakage of dye and I haven't had any problems with dye leakage when the fabric has been washed and some of the T-shirts I've dyed get thrown in with the washing in the normal course of affairs. I don't understand why people go through so many stages of drying and then washing and then drying again. Even with my painted fabrics they just get rinsed in cold and then a hot wash. Works for me! But then each to his own. But bearing in mind that people will only spend so much money on hand-dyed fabric it behoves one to keep the time-cost down. So how do you dye your fabric and what process suits you best and why? These are a collaged sheet of some of the fabrics I had for sale last year. Which made me wonder Mary how did your projects work out?
Click to enlarge for greater detail!
The photo printing has gone well albeit that it was done on my old HP printer. The new Epsom that I bought especially to do this because the paper doesn't turn on itself during printing, failed to accept the fabric-paper combination. I didn't have time to fiddle so will have to have another go later. I used to do it very successfully on my old Epsom so I can't see why this one doesn't work. I hate printers anyway! But at least with an Epsom printer I can now use my Epsom scanner to copy with. It wouldn't work with any other make of printer on the copy facility. So I now have a printer-scanner set up with my laptop upstairs and ditto but HP downstairs. I think that's what one would call overkill. When I've finished this project I have some ideas for using photo printed fabric and will try them out. I've been taking photos so that I'm ready.
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This weekend I am going to do some dyeing as my new dyes have arrived. Some yellows that I haven't used before which will be fun. I have bought some plastic so that I can stack pieces. My method of dyeing is very quick and simple and ideally suited to working in a small confined area. I either work on acrylic sheets or in small plastic tubs. Either way there is no hassle. On the sheets I can dye paint if I want and in the tubs, which vary in size, I can mix as well as folding in different ways. When the fabric has cured in the dye I then rinse it out immediately in cold water (a rough rinse) and then stick in the washing machine where it gets a hot, very hot, wash and lots of rinses. Then it hangs to dry or I iron it wet. Even wet being ironed on a white cloth there is no leakage of dye and I haven't had any problems with dye leakage when the fabric has been washed and some of the T-shirts I've dyed get thrown in with the washing in the normal course of affairs. I don't understand why people go through so many stages of drying and then washing and then drying again. Even with my painted fabrics they just get rinsed in cold and then a hot wash. Works for me! But then each to his own. But bearing in mind that people will only spend so much money on hand-dyed fabric it behoves one to keep the time-cost down. So how do you dye your fabric and what process suits you best and why? These are a collaged sheet of some of the fabrics I had for sale last year. Which made me wonder Mary how did your projects work out?
Click to enlarge for greater detail!
The fabrics look wonderful like that!
ReplyDeleteThank you Shirley. It is so much easier this way rather than inserting every piece singly!
ReplyDelete