Rock And Roll Baby

Maybe it’s just me, but shopping for baby clothes can be a bit overwhelming on the pastel cuteness.  Don’t get me wrong, I like a cutely dressed baby as much as anyone else, but I do get sick of all the pastel blues and greens and I really get sick of all those cute-sy teddy bears!

I was really exited to find this tutorial for making newborn gowns from old t-shirts on This Mama Makes Stuff.  I have to say that the pattern and tutorial are surprisingly simple, but I have been working with a lot of knit fabric lately.  I spent a few hours making two gowns and I love the results!

I had a similar gown like this for Little Miss and I loved the ease of diaper changing.  Hers was Winnie the Pooh, Transformers is much more us.I think I might have to add a stencil to this one to make it a bit more special, but it’s still way better than pastels and bears!

I have a bit of knit left over and I think I will be making some matching hats and maybe a few fancy rags.  Now I just need to get a few more t-shirts, I would love some classic concert tees to work with.  If anyone has any cool shirts to trade, let me know.

Let’s Tie-Dye!

Every once in a while I get the urge to tie-dye.  Years ago the quickest and easiest option was RIT Dye, well not anymore!  I recently received some samples of Tulip’s Permanent Fabric Dye to try.  I was impressed with the vivid colors that were available, very bright and modern. This dye is super easy to use, all you need is steaming hot water and 1/4 c. of salt.  I had several colors to experiment with and this is what I came up with.  I used 1 yard pieces of 100% cotton knit fabric for my samples.

The blue fabric is Royal Blue and Teal.  First I roughly pleated the fabric and bound it with acrylic yarn (that’s what was handy and I have tons to spare).  I immersed it in the Royal Blue, agitating it for the first 15 minutes and then allowing it to soak for another 45 minutes.  I then rinsed and removed the yarn, I have this really awesome feature on my new HE washing machine that rinses and spins the fabric, yay!  I then immersed the damp fabric in a vat of Teal dye agitating and soaking in the same way, rinsed and dried.

The Red fabric is made using Bright Red and Sunshine dye (there is a lot more yellow in person that isn’t showing up in this photo).  I carefully pleated the fabric vertically and then bound it with acrylic yarn.  It was then immersed in the Bright Red dye, agitated and soaked for an hour.  Then it was rinsed and the yarn removed.  I then carefully pleated the fabric horizontally and re-tied it with yarn.  It was then immersed in the Sunshine dye, agitated and soaked for an hour, rinsed and untied, then dried.

The black fabric was made using black dye.  I decided where the center of the bulls-eye would be and then I wrapped it with string, hopefully this picture explains what I did.

I did this randomly all over my piece of fabric, it looked really strange when I was finished.

This time I immersed it in the Black dye and agitated and soaked it for an hour, rinsed it, removed the strings, and dried it.

I was very pleased with how easy this product is to use, and the results are great, vivid, rich colors and not having to boil the darker colors (like RIT dye) is a big plus!  I was also able to achieve lighter, pastel colors by only immersing the fabric for 10 – 15 minutes.

Tulip has an entire line of products for dying fabric, like custom color mixing kits, tie-dying kits, and resists to use, and I think I will be trying a few of them as well. 

If you would like to see more projects using Tulip dyes check out this e-book from Favecrafts, there are 28 projects organized by 18 different dye techniques, with step-by-step photo instructions!  And if you would like to get some Tulip dye of your own you can order it directly from ilovetocreate.com, enter the code “fave1009” to receive free shipping until November 30, 2009.

What technique do you like the best and what should I make with all this fabric?

I Made Tye Dyed Yarn

When I was at the Goodwill last week I found the most striking tye dyed shirt, it was fuchsia and lime green!  I knew that I just had to have it to make some t-shirt yarn.During nap time I started cutting my yarn, I worked very hard to use almost every last bit.I ended up with a 198 gram ball.  I was so excited to start knitting that I forgot to take a picture of the ball, it was really pretty.  I had originally thought that I would make another washcloth or two, but at the last minute I decided to make a drop stitch scarf.It is definitely bright, I really like this color combo.  The fabric is warm and surprisingly heavy, I sure it will be super warm.  My only regret it that I wish it was longer, but I always say that!

I need more tye dyed shirts, I haven’t seen many since I started wanting them, what’s up with that?  I would love to make some sort of rug out of them.  I’ll have to decide what color family to use and then stock up on $.99 day or I could just get all white/light colors and tye dye them myself.

Tie Dye Washcloth

I recently bought a tie dyed t-shirt at the goodwill for $.99. I took it home and cut it into strips that were roughly 1 inch wide.I used size 19 knitting needles and simple garter stitch to make this rainbow washcloth. I had originally used size 15 needles and it was just to tight/dense. It still seemed a little stiff, so I threw it in with the laundry and boy did it shrink (it must have been a new shirt). I was able to stretch it back into shape. The garter stitch has given it a lot of texture, it will make a good dishcloth or swiffer cover.
I have read that using well worn t shirts makes super soft washcloths, new ones not so much. I think maybe I cut the strips to wide, I'll try 1/2 inch wide next time. I already have a nice worn shirt ready to be sacrificed.