A project to dye for

My textile course comes to a finish next week for the Christmas break. I've found this term rather challenging possibly because the theme "Worn and Torn, Faded Glory" didn't really rock my boat and I found it difficult to find an idea, a source or just anything that inspired me. Everything I thought of I quickly lost interest in. I finally found some inspiration at The British Library on a group visit we made there - lets be honest.....plenty of worn and torn stuff there!
After a few false starts I eventually settled on a pattern derived from a Roman wall which Louise, the tutor, suggested could be done with transfer dyes. I was rather intrigued by the comment but had no idea how to go about it.

This is the wall pattern and, of course, the colours have become faded from what, originally, must have been vibrant, singing colours.
I used the transfer dyes to make a collection of colours based of the blues, yellows, browns and reds in the
pattern.
1. Paint a piece of copy paper with the colour of choice and leave to dry
2. Transfer the dye onto synthetic fabric by ironing or using a heat press (natural fabrics will not take transfer dyes)
3. Cut out fabric shapes from the transfer dyed fabric and place them between two pieces of soluble fabric, the bottom sheet of which is a sticky fabric to which fabric can be adhered.
4. Machine stitch all over ensuring that the stitched lines join up with each other in some kind of "web" pattern so it all holds together when the soluble is washed away.

5. Place the finished fabric into water and allow to soak as a start to removing the soluble fabric which can take several attempts to remove most or all of it.
6. Take finished piece and pin out onto a piece of foam board or polystyrene to dry.

After leaving the piece (and I had to push down the sides to fit the sink) this is what it looked like!

They have now dried to a rock hard consistency but are quite lovely and mad in their own way. My fellow group members made some suggestions such as, "make it into a hat, a swimming hat, a boob tube" but I may just be plain boring and stick it up on a wall!
Hope you like it - lol!
Next post will show my experiments with creating a large length of fabric using transfer dyes. I started this week and am getting some exciting results....watch this space!
x