Shibori Experiment 2

 I tried three different things this time.

1. Bomaki shibori in Raven Black where I stitched the fabric into a tube first, then soaked it in soda ash water and slipped it onto the PVC pipe like a sock and tightened the "laces."
- It didn't save time overall, but it did save the amount of time I had to deal with wet fabric.
- Results came out the same.
- This is what I will do for the skirt panels.

2. Arashi shibori in Muir Green. I draped the fabric over the pole, wrapped with buttonhole thread, and scrunched. Not what I am looking for in the skirt.
- Did not save time overall and had hands in contact with soda ash water for a while.
- Must pull thread tight!!

3. Arashi shibori in sapphire blue, but this time with a double-width of fabric. Again, I draped the fabric over the pole and then wrapped it up on itself, then wrapped with buttonhole thread and scrunched. It did not fade, as expected, but still produced a nice result.
- Use more dye than for narrower strips.
- Use less length - don't really need 120" of this one.
- If doing multiple runs at once, put this one on the pole first. It is harder to scrunch, especially if there is fabric hanging off the end.

The next test should be an over-dying test.

Shibori Experiment Notes

From experiment 1:

Reduce dye, water, and urea. Used 1c of water to 10g dye. Need 1/4 cup water and 2-3g dye.
Fabric scrunched from 120" to approx 12". Cut pipe into manageable lengths.

Because of the number of experiments I still need to do I'm going to leave the pipe long.

Experiment 2 will be more of an arashi technique where I wrap the fabric around the PVC, then wrap it with thread and scrunch it instead of stitching the edges and scrunching.

Future experiments will include:
- Over dye. I'll dye a strip of fabric a solid color and then do either bomaki or arashi with a darker color.
- Fire! Ok, not actual fire, just dye to look like fire. I'll paint oranges and reds and yellows around the fabric in stripes and see how that goes.
- Layers. I'll use a wider strip and wrap it around itself before scrunching. This is to see how the corset fabric will turn out and if it fades going up.
- Folding. If layers don't work well, I'll try folding it in half and either doing bomaki or arashi to see how that works.

Products Made:
- Headband
- Scrunchies
- Drawstring pouch

The Corset

 This one's gonna be a doozy. I want to make a corset to go with The Skirt, and there's an overarching "mermaid" theme going on. Mistakes were made on skirt calculations resulting in the omission of a sandy color that I was rather bummed about... But then I realized, I can put that in the corset!

The trick is that the corset is going to have a scale-smocked shell on the outside.

The Plan:

THE SHELL
Smocking:
Here's where I found the idea: http://www.alltomorrowspatterns.com/2015/04/0x0-html/
Here's a generator for the 120 degree angle: https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/vartriangle/
---I set it to 1" triangles and .25" printer margins. We'll see how this goes.
Muslin shibori dyed in raw muslin (base) and Celadon (shibori)
---This might be tricky - I need more than 11.75" of height here. I can wrap around the pole more than once, which might result in an awesome fade. More dye experimentation needed.

Adornment:
Open-donut flounces in Skirt Tier 1 fabric set in back seams to look like fins.

THE GUTS
Draft an overbust corset with a split busk front.
Use as few layers as possible (just one from coutil?) for air-flow - The Shell may be more insular than expected.

Stupid Fabric Fractions!

 

The Skirt

 I've been in love with 25-yard skirts since the first time I saw one. They fly. They tuck. They swish!

I need one.

So here are some plans:

Muslin, 4-tiered, shibori dyed.

Sparkle Belly helped figure out the tier heights and an alternative to buying 12.5 yards of fabric and having so much left over. https://www.sparklybelly.com/diy-25-yard-skirt/

I need:
18 strips 3.125 yards long (112.5 inches) by 11.75" wide of muslin
Dharma Fiber Reactive Dyes in 157 Celadon, 162 Grecian Sea, 22 Cobalt Blue, and 132 Caribbean Blue
Chemicals for dying
11" outer diameter PVC pipe
Sewing machine, thread, gathering foot

Notes:

SKIRT:
Tier 1 - 1 strip in Celadon (solid) and Cobalt Blue (shibori)
Tier 2 - 2 strips in Cobalt Blue (solid) and Caribbean Blue (shibori)
Tier 3 -  4 strips in Caribbean Blue (solid) and Grecian Sea (shibori)
Tier 4 - 8 strips in Grecian Sea (solid) and Cobalt Blue (shibori)

GATHERING FOOT:

Good info here: https://blog.treasurie.com/gathering-foot-tutorial/
In short:
Long length, tighter tension for more gathers
Flat fabric on bottom, face up, with fabric to gather on top, face down
For muslin on Brother machine: Tension 6.5 Stitch Length 3
Sew gathers then attach strips via overlock machine.

ALL DONE!
Tucking tricks: Tribe Nawaar

Shibori experiment

 Can't remember what version of Shibori this is, but here is what I did  I chose to do bomaki shibori for experiment 1:

11" circumference pvc pipe
11.75"x120" muslin fabric
10 grams Lilac Mist Fiber Reactive Dye (Dharma muck dye)
1T urea
2 cups water
Soda ash water (unmeasured amounts)

Fabric is wrapped and curing now. Current notes:

Reduce dye, water, and urea. Used 1c of water to 10g dye. Need 1/4 cup water and 2-3g dye.
Fabric scrunched from 120" to approx 12". Cut pipe into manageable lengths.