Itajime Revisited

Having the time of my life playing around with Itajime, which is the Japanese technique

 for creating patterns on fabric through folding, clamping, and /or binding it followed by dyeing.

This piece was previously dyed. I accordion folded it,

 then folded it another way tying rubber bands to secure the folds.

Then squeezed darker colored dyes into it.

Below is another piece accordion folded and secured, ready for dyeing.

Below is a picture of the three pieces with the dye applied and in the batching stage.

 And here are the other two finished pieces.

Shibori in the Studio with Friends

Yesterday, I had my Cutting Edge Fiber Arts over to my barn studio for our monthly meeting.
 After we were done with the business portion of the meeting we got to play with shibori techniques. I demonstrated Itajime, Arashi, and stitched shibori. 

 Sara, one of the other members demonstrated using rope to create a honeycomb pattern. 

Everyone left with at least one piece of shibori dyed fabric

 which needed to be batched and rinsed out at home.

 I can't wait to see how everyone's turned out.

Below is my Stitched Resist piece. On the top warm colored section,  I used Hishaki-nui stitching, where you fold the fabric to create symmetrical stitched shapes, in my case circles.

 I did three rows of them.

Below, in the blue area is Ori-nui, which is stitching through two layers that are folded.

The bottom area is  created through tying thread tightly around beads. 

I think I need to add something more in that section.

Below is my Honeycomb Patterned piece. Thanks for showing us this technique Sara.

More Wearables Dyeing Fun

This was a great cotton top which had a layer of lace on top, 

 which I bought at a thrift store in San Luis Obispo. 

I just scrunched it up into lots of mountains and valleys, and squirted dyes into it. 

Arashi T Shirt Over-Dyeing

I had some friends over  to dye shirts in the  Studio-Barn yesterday. As part of demonstrating the washing out portion of working with procion dyes,  I like to have something

 that is dyed, cured (or batched) and  ready to be rinsed and washed.

 I over-dyed a cotton shirt from Dharma Trading Company that I originally dyed in 2015.  

Below is the shirt prior to over-dyeing.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.

 I think you get some really interesting layers of patterns, values and colors when you over-dye.

More Arashi Shibori

I had lots of fun yesterday in my new studio playing around with dyes

 creating layers of colors and patterns. 

First Layer

Pole-wrapped

Drying outside on the clothesline

Closeup

Polymer Clay Buttons for Pieced and Quilted Sweatshirt Jacket

Not being able to find appropriate buttons for my sweatshirt makeover jacket, I pulled out my polymer clay materials and tools and got to work.

Here's my pasta machine that I use to help condition the clay and other tools.

Here's the buttons which still need either holes or a button shank glued to them.

Here the buttons are on the jacket. I like how all of them look except for the top one. I don't like how it looks on that particular piece of fabric. I'm either going to make a different button or four different buttons or flip the buttons to the other side. Let me know what you think by commenting below.

Shibori Dyeing in the Studio with Friends

This last Thursday, my quilting circle with whom I've been meeting for over twenty years,  met in my new studio barn to create shibori shirts.  We had a great time. Here are the shirts.

This lovely rayon shirt above, from Dharma Trading Co. ,was dyed by my friend Isolde. 

 We were very disappointed that it shrunk.  I had only dyed one other rayon shirt prior to this one and it didn't shrink, even though I washed it in hot water and put it into the dryer.

My friend Joyce dyed this asymmetrical cotton shirt from Dharma Trading Co.

Lucille used her two favorite colors to dye this cotton shirt.

Phyllis dyed this cotton shirt.

This is one I dyed for my husband as a sample shirt from the previous tie dye session.

Above is another Rayon Shirt. This one I was more careful with handling, so it wouldn't shrink. 

Above is how the shirt below was wrapped around PVC piping to create the Arashi Design.

Arashi Shirt