We had Katherine from Blooms Endless Summer and her husband visiting our holiday place for the weekend and we thought we would do a spot of natural dyeing using some donated tablecloth scraps.
Whilst the fabric was mordanting we went foraging in the bush for interesting shapes – think Banksia leaves and kangaroo paw flowers, and went through Mark’s wheelbarrow as he tip pruned a few things.
I found two jars of a mystery purple liquid in amongst my dyeing things in the shed, as well as coreopsis and calendula flowers from last summer, and some very old onion skins. I had already prepared a jar of iron water by soaking steel in vinegar to produce some iron oxide. We were good to go!
I decided on a cold immersion approach so we prepared assorted vats of colour and began wrapping.
We laid our flowers and leaves on to the mordanted fabric, sometimes dipping them into the iron water, and rolled up with split kangaroo paw sticks, which leave a wonderful purple stripe on things.
We also did some folded pieces. Here Katherine is folding a rectangle into triangles. It did create an interesting effect.
Unwrapping is always a fun activity – a bit like unwrapping a present, you never quite know what you’re going to get!
I decided the mystery purple liquid is logwood and we were able to dye several pieces with it.
Here’s a little video of Katherine doing the unwrapping with her husband making impressed noises!
This is a piece dyed with coreopsis and calendula flowers. The iron water creates those black marks, which really add to the overall effect. It seems to highlight the veins but not the leaves and I think this must be the eucalyptus oil in the leaves repelling the iron water.
We hung them to dry and then took photos grouping by colour. I kept the dyed tea towels I had already stitched and Katherine kept all the purple pieces and a couple of the onion dyed pieces.
We had such a fun weekend and we came away with some lovely pieces of dyed fabric, although now Katherine has to make something with hers. Luckily my tea towels can be given away should I choose.
On other matters, Miss G has really embraced the Montessori style Christmas tree this year. We still have to sit on cushions, which amused me.
She was joined by her little sister who pulled all the decorations off and popped them in the pockets. These two are quite adorable.
And finally, Miss G wanted to do some sewing. When I asked her what she wanted to make she suggested Peppa Pig, so that’s what we made. She drew the face on and I think she did a great job.
