Dyed rtw, dress form and new project

I am not sure the color is okay on the rayon blouse and skirt . I didn't get them out of the dryer until after dark so I will check the color in the morning. I think they may not be dark enough. If the top matches last month's skirt I may wear them to church tomorrow.

I need a break from finding a skirt I like with the cross-over empire bodice. Inverted box pleats do not work on my body. I undid part of the waist seam on the right side and played with the pleats until I think I have a better pleat. I have no desire to continue with the skirt right now so I decided to sew something else and let this muslin wait.

I have enough red knit to make 2 tops and a skirt. I have a coordinating stretch woven cotton print for a skirt. I am making the woven skirt first. This will be a straight skirt, long as usual. I cut the skirt out and have the pockets almost sewn. These are simple slash pockets like the ones in this post except there is no pump opening. With skirts I just clip the pump to the waistband.

I am going to use a narrow waistband on this skirt. I rarely put a zipper or pocket opening in this casual of a skirt but I might check the zipper stash for a matching zipper. I am going to sew a slit instead of a vent - I didn't remember to cut a vent.

More Dyeing - a project and some WIMS (works in mind)

A couple of weeks ago I dyed a rayon challis skirt and top from Dharma (NAYY) using their new procion mx color mixture called Caribbean Blue. The color was a bit duller than I like and a not quite as blue as the blue rayon skirt I sewed last month. The color was also a bit blotchy. I like un-even dye results but I don't like large splotches.

Last night I put the fabric in a bath with ProChem's Brightest Blue procion mx mixture. I used more wather than the first dye bath since I want more even results. I left container in the tub overnight. I did some initial rinsing this morning and think I will like the results. I will run the top and skirt through the washing machine tomorrow and see if I like it as well when all the dye is rinsed out and the fabric is dry. Fabric looks a couple of shades darker when wet so I wait until the fabric is dry for final decisions.

One of the fun things about dyeing is that a fabric can always go in another dye bath if you don't like the results. The rayon skirt and blouse aren't my first time overdying a less than successful result. 3 years ago I had a teal blouse that took 4 dye baths until I liked the color. I started with a color mixture called teal with a horrible yellow green result. I then over-dyed with Turquoise MX-G twice and then Blue MX-G with the final result a wonderful deep teal. The final color had a wonderful depth with some color variation. I also have a rayon challis that I dyed, discharged and overdyed. The result is a dark navy on the green side. The fabric is pretty but I haven't decided what to make with it.

I have several ideas for more dye projects - there is a reason for the title of my blog. :-)

2 years ago I did a sample of rayon challis with 2 low water immersion baths, one with lavender and one with lilac (both procion mx mixtures from ProChem). The result was a fabric that is a perfect for a top to match a skirt I want to make from a 4-ply silk in my stash. When I start looking at transitional clothes next month I will be considering a using the silk and dyeing the rayon challis.

I have several ideas for screen prints. One is to sprinkle a variety of star and triangle shapped confetti on an overhead and copy the overhead. I will use this to create a screen. I want to try something that can be an overall design without having to register design repeats. I think this idea should work. I am also thinking the it would be fun to mask off outlines of shapes on fabric and print an overall pattern within the outlines. Another idea is some rough brushstroke like patterns that can be printed over a un-evenly dyed fabric.

I have several PhotoEZ screens I made a while ago that haven't been used or have only been used for samples. I want to dye some silk charmeuse with an almost plaid design using purple one direction and turquoise the other in a shiborri pattern that will leave a pattern with lines in it. Where the 2 colors cross the fabric will be blue. Over the turquosise and purple dye I will print some blue japanese inspiried images. I made a sample with a ColorHue silk dye thickened with shaving cream. I loved the results. I had some problems getting the turquoise right when I tried to dye the silk last fall, it is time to try again. I have plenty of silk, I just need some times.

I have 2 fabrics waiting for a swim in a discharge bath. One fabric I will bleach - the fabric is dyed with red mx 8b. This color (called fushia by ProChem and Dhharma) discharges to a yellow green I don't like with thiox. The other fabric is a mixture that uses either red mx 8b or red mx 5b (Dharma's light red, ProChem's mixing red). I will probably toss both pieces together. Last month I bought new gas/vapor cartridges for my respirator so I am set to discharge dye without irritating my respiratory system.

New skirt for the cross-over empire bodice

I really like the cross-over empire bodice but I am not very happy with the skirt. I am making another muslin using my princess line block for the skirt top. This skirt has only a little flare with box pleats on the side front and side back seams. A quick basting of the skirt to the bodice with the pleats not sewn into the seam showed the pleats worked nicely but needed to be sewed closed a bit lower.

I had gathered the under bust gathers into an area 1/2 inches wider and didn't like that. I have now re-gathered them back into the same length as the first dress. The pleats are sewn down longer in the bodice with the depth of the front pleats increased to match the tighter gathering of the bodice.

I am putting pockets in the side seams of the skirt. In the August Sewalong thread on Stitcher's Guild, Melinda posted a link to Sigrid's side seam pocket tutorial that helped me see how I can put a pocket in the skirt.

I like the top of the pocket to be sewn to skirts and dress at the waist seam. Pockets just hang better, especially when I put the insulin pump, keys or cell phone in the pocket. I have been doing an angled pockets and an angled pocket won't work with an empire waist.

I stopped doing in-seam pockets because I had consistent problems with skirts tearing at the bottom of the pocket opening. Sigrid's way of doing in-seam pockets is a bit different and I hope this will solve the tear problem. I have a similar pocket in a RTW rayon challis skirt that hasn't torn in 3 years.

One of the 2 pocket pieces goes up into the waist seam, the other stops a couple of inches above the pocket opening. I didn't sew the top of the shorter pocket piece to the longer pocket piece so my insulin pump should slip easily into either pocket.

Hopefully I can finish the 2nd pocket and baste the skirt back into the bodice tonight.

10 gore skirt

A few weeks ago I was wearing an 2 piece dress I made last summer (details here). The skirt is an 8 gore skirt with some fullness. I decided I wanted a 'twirly' skirt and a 10 or 12 gore skirt would be a good way to make one. I had Thursday and Friday off last week so part of the long weekend was spent drafting and sewing a 10 gore skirt. I used the 8-gore skirt to get an idea of how wide to make the top and how much the waist and hem should curve. I used these 6 gore skirt instructions adapted for more gores. The first muslin showed the gores were too flared and didn't hang well. I narrowed the gores a bit and love the result.

I made the skirt with some rayon challis I bought last summer. I put slash pockets in the side seams and an elastic waist band. I had the skirt all finished except for the hem last weekend and hemmed it Wednesday night. After finishing the skirt except for the hem I tried to make a matching blouse and ended up with a wadder*. I have a print that should match or I might try to dye some rayon to match. The only summer top I have that goes with the skirt is a white t-shirt so a blouse to match is high on the things to sew list.

* A wadder is a sewing project that doesn't turn out - something you wad up and throw away.