Feeling Groovy Dress Video

OK, here is a crazy little movie, set to fun salsa music that gives the high level step by step instructions for making this dress:

PART FIVE: Finish the Patch

When the ink is dry, you need to heat set it. First cover with a cloth that you don't mind scorching, and iron using a high heat setting for 3-5 mins, moving the iron over the cloth constantly.




Then I cut my designs into their own squares:




Spritz with a little water, fold under the four edges and iron a hem.


When you're finished it looks like this and is ready to sew onto the dress.


Here is the dress, dried and ironed, with the patch ready to sew on:


FINAL STEPS COMING UP SOON! Sew on the patch, sew in the Little Bitsys label and trim the hem with pom poms. Stay tuned!

PART FOUR: Printing the Patch

In Part Two you saw the printing supplies; ink, brayer, inking plate and the carved block design for PEACE. I'm using screen printing ink which is a little runnier than linoleum block print ink which comes in a tube but I couldn't find the textile version so I've been using this ink which works for me.

Put a small amount of ink on the inking plate (hard to see black ink on black plate!)


Using the inking plate and the brayer to ink the brayer evenly


and then roll the ink onto the block print design, making sure it is inked universally


Then press the block onto the fabric carefully, press down hard, then remove and voila! Here are three prints. I re-ink the block each time.


Lots o' PEACE here


I will let this dry now, probably a full day or overnight to make sure it's set.

NEXT: Heat set the patch and prepare for sewing to the dress.

PART THREE: Making the PEACE Patch

I am going to tie dye the fabric for the patch using the same method as the dress (Step 5. Prepare Fabric Patch for Printing), only this will use pink dye and it's a very small piece of fabric.

Using the cotton fabric, I will make strips about 4" wide.




Do the tie dye thing, rubber bands on the fabric


Soak the banded fabric in water


Mix the hot pink dye






After dying the fabric, rinse. Here are the two strips, wadded, dyed and rinsed


Now remove the rubber bands, gorgeous color!


On my front porch, coincidence?


Now it's dry


And I'll iron the strips


NEXT: PRINTING

Happy Fourth of July!

Here's a little tribute to the day from Colorado

PART TWO: What's Next?

DAY TWO:

We've accomplished 3 of the 11 steps for this dress.

After the dresses were washed, they looked like this:


and this:


I can already tell they are lighter than I wanted, here is a close up of the dried fabric:


Since these are two light for my project (I didn't use enough dye), I am going to re-dye them with the same color but a stronger concentration of dye.

Here's a preview of the materials used in steps 6, 7 and 8

6. Design and carve block print
7. Ink the block
8. Print the patch

For the block print you need something to cut your design into and cutting blades. Here I used a rubber carving block, very similar to an eraser in texture. I have also used linoleum blocks, pictured. Linoleum gives you cleaner and more defined detail which can be more difficult in the rubber. I have also printed with many other objects like potatoes, paper clips and other things that looked like they would turn out interesting!

In this photo you can also see the carved block I used for the "peace" design, well-used. Notice the wording is backwards so it will print correctly.


To print with the block, once carved, you will need printing ink, a brayer to smooth the ink uniformly on a slick surface (here I have a metal inking plate made for this purpose, you can use anything, a plastic meat tray (well cleaned!), anything the ink will resist).


Printing surface. Here is the fabric I use to print on, which will then become the patch. These are two different weights of cotton, one is a very smooth, mercerized, lightweight cotton, the other is a little more weighty and not as smooth. They are both PFD (prepared for dying or printing/painting).


And here are some examples of the fabric cut and ready for printing. If I am printing on white fabric, I would use either pre-cut squares or a strip and then cut. For this project, I need to actually tie dye the fabric before I cut it.


TOMORROW: tie dying the fabric for the prints and printing the design.

PART ONE: Making the "Feeling Groovy" Dress

A photo essay of the steps I take to create this dress.

The steps:

1. Buy the blanks
2. Prepare blanks for dying
3. Dye
4. Prepare dress for printing
5. Prepare fabric patch for printing
6. Design and carve block print
7. Ink the block
8. Print the patch
9. Heat set patch
10. Sew onto dress
11. Trim dress

I will start this post with the first 3 steps.

STEP 1. Order and receive clothing blanks from my favorite supplier, Dharma Trading Co. There are some other blanks suppliers as well, some will allow you to select the fabric type but the minimum orders are high. Dharma has no minimums. Dharma also sells the dyes and chemicals. Another good source I use is PRO Chemical (dyes and chemicals, not blanks).


Here I am dying several infant lap tee long sleeve dresses, 100% cotton jersey, PFD (prepared for dying).

STEP 2. To create the tie dye effect, bunch up some fabric on the bottom of the skirt in a pattern and bind tightly with rubber bands.





Prepare the cloth for dying by soaking in water (warm is fine) for about an hour or as long as necessary for all fibers to be wet (this prevents spotty dying). For larger batches, run through the rinse cycle of the machine, no detergent. If you are not using PFD material, you should wash the fabric using Synthrapol (to be discussed later) or something similar to remove any agents that would effect the dye process.





STEP 3. First, dissolve salt in warm water. The amount depends on the amount of fabric and the color of dye. Fort his project, about 1/2 cup will work. When I dye in the washing machine I use from 2-5 cups per load, depending on the color. While the salt is dissolving, measure the dye using the proportions from your dye manufacturer. (I experimented a lot at first before getting the colors I wanted. And light colors are easier than dark). I mix my dry dye with a cup of hot water first.

For this batch, I think I have about a pound of fabric, maybe less. For this color dye, I will need about 1-1/2 tablespoons (if you want to be more accurate you should weigh the dye, this would be about .38 ounces). Each dye color has a different proportion and then you may even want to vary that to increase or decrease the color intensity.

salt




Here's a drop of water in the dye, not intentional but I think it's an artistic photo!


When dissolved, add to the dye batch.




I'm doing a small batch now so I'm going to use a bucket but for larger batches you can use a washing machine but you cannot let the water drain so it takes some practice resetting the machine and watching carefully.

Now add your wet clothes, wrung out well, to the dye and stir, stir, stir. I use a paint stirring stick and I use my hands (always wear gloves!) like a washing machine, agitating the fabric. You want the fabric to not stop moving or the dye will settle and cause an uneven effect, which is cool if you're going for that look, on this dress I'm not.





These are chemical resistant gloves that I use:


You can let the clothes sit in the dye bath and stir/agitate every 15-20 minutes or so, this works better for lighter colors. Darker colors do better if you stir/agitate more often.

Now that the dye has soaked in (for this color I waited about 30 minutes) I have to set the dye.

Dissolve dye activator (or soda ash) in a cup or two of hot hot water.


Remove the clothes from the dye bath and place in another bucket.


Add the completely dissolved (important to completely dissolve the activator in water) activator to the dye bath and mix well.


Place the clothes back in the dye with activator bucket and stir/agitate again for about 30 minutes.


Are we still only on step 3? Yes.

Now rinse and wash. Rinse until the water runs clear.


Also, different fabrics will take the dye differently. I threw some leggings into this batch and they took the dye differently though both are cotton.


After rinsing, wash the clothes in Synthrapol and hot water (notice the steam?). And make sure the husband is out of the shower, oops. You only need a tiny bit of Synthrapol. This will remove any last traces of excess dye and activator. I also sometimes use fabric softener in the final rinse. Milsoft is a good one.


Here is my lineup of the players (chemicals and dye I'm using)


STAY TUNED FOR MORE tomorrow.... Time to go to that other job.