Going green

Well, you guys, I did it. I wanted Green and that's... kind of...what I got! I threw all caution I'd expressed in my previous post to the wind and threw this beige/grey eyelet dress into the vat (my kitchen sink) of Kelly Green dye. Here's how it turned out.

Before:

...and after!

The cotton fabric part of the eyelet took the green dye really well and is a little, tiny bit more saturated looking in real life than in this picture. The thread of the eyelet embroidery and the matching grey lining, however, did not take a drop of dye and magically look exactly the same as where I started. This is what I'd been afraid of, but I'm actually finding myself liking the way it looks now! The (now) contrasting lining and stitching make the flowery pattern of the fabric much more pronounced and ...interesting.

Here's a closer look.

The one downside of this project has been that the cotton part of the dress, mainly just the skirt, though, has shrunk a little bit from the hot water and subsequent washing/drying of the dyeing process. Now the grey lining peeks out and is longer than the hem of the skirt. That can be easily fixed, though. :)

I also threw a bit of bright white, synthetic something-or-other, lace in the dye solution in hopes of making it some shade of green. Surprisingly, it came out baby blue! It's pretty but, I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

Those cut pattern pieces you're seeing are part of my latest sewing project, which also happens to involve the emerald cotton sateen I picked up at G. Street fabrics during the sewing blogger meetup earlier this month. I'm hoping for a cocktail dress to wear around Christmas. It was totally unplanned, but after looking on etsy for something vintage, and drooling over this dress pinned to my inspiration board, I decided to just make something...and if it doesn't quite work out, I'll just wear something I've already got. :)

Hooray for green! More details on my WIP soon.

Lately...

This weekend, I had a couple of good thrifting trips. Some of the items I picked up you'll be seeing more of in the coming months (so secretive!), but one you'll get to check out right now. It's an eShakti grey/beige eyelet dress that I found at Goodwill.

As you can see, the color is a little bit ...meh, but the fabric says it's 100% cotton (I'm assuming that excludes the shiny, matching greyish lining), so I was thinking I might try to dye it. I've got a couple of packs of Kelly Green RIT dye that I'd bought with the idea that I'd dye a length of white (probably synthetic, not receptive to dye) lace I've had laying around and try to make some kind of blouse out of it. Sound weird? Well, it looks great in my head.

When I showed Tom the newly thrifted dress and held up the box of dye next to it, he was like, "Green...??," which got me thinking, maybe this is another idea that only sounds good in my head. I have no idea if 1) the lining that peeks through all of the little holes in the eyelet will take dye at all, and if it does, how much; and 2) if the silky (rayon?) thread used in the embroidery of the eyelet detail on the fabric will take any dye either. This means my results could be crappy. I'm thinking maybe a more subtle color might be better...but what?

Duke is by my side for support, but doesn't have much advice to share.

Also this weekend, I've been trying to do a little mending that's been waiting in the mending pile for far too long. More of Tom's shirts that need taken in with some darts (copied from the job the tailor did on another of his shirts recently).

I was initially surprised when I saw the tailor had made two long darts down the back of the shirt he'd asked be adjusted so the fit was more...fitted, but it seems to be the best/easiest way to take care of it. Taking the shirt in at the sides might sound simpler but would probably actually be more annoying than darts, I'd think, due to the fancy (flat-felled?) seams there.

Anyway, I'm working on those shirts. Mending, blerg.

Another update: remember that holiday gift-making sewing I'd mentioned briefly before? Well, now I'm starting to think I might end up waiting on that. I'm actually feeling rather un-motivated to sew lately. So those holiday gifts might end up being belated... or just random late-winter (think...January/February) "just because" gifts. We'll see.