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7.21.2014

blueberry dip dye jacket

A new jacket for girl child!  The design is a heavily modified version of my Fair Weather Jacket pattern, designed to fit over full skirt party dresses.  From the Fair Weather Jacket, I kept the hood but ditched the belt.  From there I flared the bottom hem and arms.  The whole shebang is made out of a raw linen duvet cover I found in the thrift store some time back with a bedsheet lining.  Ha, I suppose it's a bit like taking your bed with you where you go.

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The exciting bit for me is the dip dye we made out of blueberries.  I was wondering out loud at my friend about where was the best place to buy dye for this jacket and she said, why don't you just make your own?

Funny how it never occurred to me before.

I used a tutorial from Alina's Adventures and it was super easy, not to mention delicious smelling.

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Blue stew!  Instead of mashing the berries I just took a hand mixer to them, which I later regretted since I simply could not strain the blueberry sludge properly and had to use the whole lot, sludge and all.  But it all turned out okay still, like most things do. 

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That's the jacket in the slow cooker for the fabric fixative.  It seems I have only one large pot in the house, something that has never been a problem up until this particular time.  The slow cooker worked well, even though I couldn't fit the whole jacket in.  Good thing I had already decided on a dip dye.

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The jacket hung out in the dye for about, oh, eight hours or so.  I would of left it over night but a weird effect of the fixative on the jacket made it turn a bit brown from the linen colouring and I panicked. 

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The brown stains washed out just fine, however.

You can see on the jacket where the fabric was a bit folded in order to fit in the pot.  It doesn't bother me but if I was going to do this again, I might try to find myself a more suitable container, maybe a wall paper paste holder?

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Although the blueberry dye isn't nearly as vibrant as a commercial dye would be, I really like the subtlety and appreciate the lack of chemicals.  Plus also I got to have my house smell like blueberries for a whole day.  Yum!

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3 comments:

  1. That jacket is awesome! I wonder if a 5 gallon bucket would work for the next project :0)

    Love girl child's cowgirl boots!

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  2. I like the "fold marks" in your dye job. It looks like batik. :) Beautiful work.

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