This post will be rather dull…. as everything is pretty much dyed black.

The first make is from a white velvet remnant (about 1m) in my stash for about 8 years. I had picked it up with other remnants at a fabric wholesalers (TWI) but never quite knew what to do with it.

I hit on the idea of spray dye, and an ombre effect. I also got carried away and ended up squeezing 2 tops out of the metre. I first tried fabric paint. I cut tee shirt shapes, dampened fabric, and sprayed some aqua paints on in blues…. then I also tried some black hand dye. I measured out some from the pack and added corresponding amount of salt and put in a spray bottle. The spray dye gave a lovely dusky effect and also seems to be an economical way to use dye, so I may use this technique again.

It worked out well, but I was sorry after I didn’t try some test pieces first, (hindsight being 20:20) as I would have liked to have done one with more ‘composition’. To fix the dye on velvet – I steamed the fabric well – rinsed then laundered (once laundered I sewed the black ‘ombre’ together) I am still not to sure what to do with the blue yet.

Second dye was some cashmere. I normally avoid dying wool as I have had limited success with it in the past. I did find 2 cashmere sweaters in the textile waste bag some time ago (in the community sew room) so I decided to dye them. Both had their sleeves cut, one was pale blue sweater cut up at sides, and the other a pale grey cardigan. both also had some staining, so I thought I would take a chance a dye them. I laundered and rinsed in a vinegar mix, then put some grey dye in the dyebath, and added some black (as wool can dye a paler shade), and then stirred the sweaters in the dye bath for 40 minutes while listening to a podcast….. wool is so tricky to dye, but I had been given the tip of constant stirring.

I thought I mixed the grey and black dye well, but mustn’t have as there was a splodge on the grey cardigan, and on the sweater. Luckily the sweater had the splodge on the inside and it is not noticeable right side out.

For the sweater, I took off the sleeves, hemmed, sewed up sides so it is now a ‘vest’. I am so delighted with this one and have been wearing it a lot. I turned the sleeves into a neck warmer which I do have to tidy up but have been wearing it none-the-less.

There are a few options with the cardigan to conceal the splodge. Bead it , embroider it or spray dye over…… realistically – much as I would like to – I won’t be beading it – I really can’t see myself taking time out to do this….. I may do some embroidery though so the cardigan is back in the workroom for the moment.

and finally, I had to machine dye some tee shirts (as husband seems to get printer toner on his tee shirts very easily)…. so I put in a cream viscose blouse which I got in the charity shop. I completely forgot a before photo – the blouse is lovely, but cream looks awful with my grey hair. It dyed well of course, but I forgot about the threads, and as the blouse was sewn with a chain stitch machine, the white seams showed when the blouse was worn/stretched. I unpicked all the seams and re-sewed with black. The button holes of course could not be re-sewed…..so I used a black sharpie for the outside (the inside threads were not sharpied)