Week 12 Ice Dye II

The romantic strapless dress, conceptually it is all that. Beautiful soft tones of pinks and purples, soft and airy, very boho chic.  With a touch of styling, the added belt and a cowboy hat, I can totally imagine that this dress is out in the hot afternoon sun in line for mini donuts at the midway.

In reality, I like the fabric, but I want to rip apart what I've sewn and start all over again.

Conceptually, this dress worked out very well on paper. I followed the directions from Sharon Sews, http://sharonsews.blogspot.ca/2011/08/sewing-tutorial-romantic-strapless.html?m=1. She clearly explained how to create her longer version from initially drafting the pattern to finishing the hem. As I did the measurements and the math, I was sure with my one yard of fabric, there was at least enough material to have a 10" wide ruffle plus add some narrow straps. I had it all roughly sketched out, perfectly, on paper.

In reality, I missed something. There would be no straps. There was only enough material for a narrow ruffle. I gleefully found some pink bias tape to finish the ruffled edge and keep all the width I could. 

To reiterate my thoughts from last week, my first ice dyed garment, I recognize that each garment produced here is far from perfect.  Rather each piece is part of a greater exploration with the intention of getting comfortable and gaining knowledge of a particular fabric under a very confined set of constraints. Those constraints being again one yard of material and zero-waste design where the entire yard of material is utilized somehow in the garment. My hope is that with continued practice and commitment to this exploration, maybe just maybe, something magical will happen and one or even a few really successful designs will emerge from all the chaos.

The fun and sometimes frustrating perk of this exploration has been learning more about dying fabric. 

While the ice dye process was still fresh on my mind from last week, I wanted to attempt it again, hopefully learning from my previous mistakes.  This time, I did not fold the fabric, but loosely rolled and coiled it into a lump packed under ice cubes.  I used pink, burgundy and black powdered dye, but much more sparingly than before.

 This process teaches one to be patient.  The results are slow.  The only instant gratification is watching the ice melt.

But once the ice has melted, at first glance, conceptually it looks like a whole, new, universe has been created.

In reality, most of the colour will fade in the wash. 

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Thank you!

I am that I am.