It turns out that supermarkets sell fabric dye. Well, black fabric dye. I went to four different shops on Friday before I found some bottles of Rit navy blue and dark green. I got up early on Saturday to go home and try again with a whole bottle of navy blue and half a bottle of green, and pick up my linen and silk. I found a couple of yards of pre-washed white linen that I'd totally forgotten about, and my wool ended up coming out of the machine a slightly darker colour. Still not really what I wanted, but useable. I've come to the conclusion that my wool has taken in as much dye as it possibly could, because that last dye bath was so dark it was almost black. I think that if I'd used that colour dye bath first, I would have really super dark fabric. None of the green came through either, but that's ok.
Yay! Finally some success! I raced home to do some chores before Spoh and Rosie came over. We had a lovely afternoon making a mess cutting out fabric and stuff. Rosie needed some help with a cotehardie sleeve pattern, so I gave her mine and she worked off that. I cut out my wool and my linen lining, and now I am going to start sewing it all up. Since I'm short on time, I think I'll machine sew the seams and hand finish them. It's an overdress so it won't be doing any supporting and (hopefully) will be looser so it won't matter so much if I'm not exact with the seams and seam allowance, which i won't be with the machine because I'm impatient and isn't the point of machine sewing to be quicker than hand sewing? :P
I also found that even though I'd hung the fabric out on a straight line, it still stretched on the edges, making them all wibbly and difficult to cut out. I also discovered that the house I'm staying in doesn't seem to have an iron. So I just did the best I could, and hopefully since wool is sort of stretchy anyway it'll end up all dropping into place.
This surcote will be eight panels, half lined with linen with some gold silk lining the sleeves and tippets. Progress photos to come!
Yay! Finally some success! I raced home to do some chores before Spoh and Rosie came over. We had a lovely afternoon making a mess cutting out fabric and stuff. Rosie needed some help with a cotehardie sleeve pattern, so I gave her mine and she worked off that. I cut out my wool and my linen lining, and now I am going to start sewing it all up. Since I'm short on time, I think I'll machine sew the seams and hand finish them. It's an overdress so it won't be doing any supporting and (hopefully) will be looser so it won't matter so much if I'm not exact with the seams and seam allowance, which i won't be with the machine because I'm impatient and isn't the point of machine sewing to be quicker than hand sewing? :P
I also found that even though I'd hung the fabric out on a straight line, it still stretched on the edges, making them all wibbly and difficult to cut out. I also discovered that the house I'm staying in doesn't seem to have an iron. So I just did the best I could, and hopefully since wool is sort of stretchy anyway it'll end up all dropping into place.
This surcote will be eight panels, half lined with linen with some gold silk lining the sleeves and tippets. Progress photos to come!
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