Linen Baby Wrap Sekka Shibori Dye: Part 1

In the last year I have been learning about fabric dyeing and recently have been drooling over shibori dyed fabrics. What is shibori? In a nut shell it is a Japanese way of resist dyeing cloth where you fold, stitch, bind, twist and/or compress a fabric to give it a pattern. I have a whole pinterest board filled with fabrics one prettier than the other.

We are staying at my MIL's house while waiting to move into our own home, but I couldn't wait any longer to dip my hands in dye, so  I got a piece of 4ft long linen out. I had bought it from Fabric-store.com a couple weeks back to use for either a baby wrap, hand towels or pillow cases and had bought it specifically with shibori dyeing on mind. It's a mid weight linen, so I know that compared to dyeing thin silk fabrics the odds are against me, but wanted to give it a go none the less.

The pattern that I have most fancied is a hexagonal snowflake pattern. Sekka Shibori. There are examples one more beautiful than the other online and I'll just post a couple images picked from online so you get an idea.

To try to make this I figured out how to break the pattern down and fold it by looking at the repeat. I'll try to draw it to illustrate my thought process:

When folding you would fold on the red vertical lines first in an accordion fold. To fold the triangles you can do it two ways to get two effects. One is a square or diamond pattern and the other is a hexagon pattern.

Usually this method utilizes thin materials like silk, which makes the folding easier to handle and the dye to take more evenly. I am going to use this fabric for either a baby carrier or other utilitarian items, so my material is a mid weight linen. It was easy to crease when I accordion folded it, but time will tell how the dye job comes out. It might be very uneven because of so many layers of fabric.

***Disclaimer before getting to business - I am not an expert or professional at dyeing, this posting is just giving you the steps that I did based on my research and what worked/was available in my circumstances.

Prepping the fabric for dyeing. The linen was store bought new, so I decided to wash it hot once with detergent and Blue Dawn soap. It didn't look that much different, so I decided to wash on hot again with just Blue Dawn. Now I could definitely tell a difference, on just how much lint came off and the feel of the fabric. I had to do a second thorough rinse, with stopping in the middle to fluff it with my hands, to get more lint to come off. Then I dried it on low heat setting for a little bit until it was damp dry and ironed on top of that.

Since I had planned a wrap, I cut the fabric in half at this point and hemmed the unfinished long edges. Now I had two 4 yd long pieces to play with. As you know linen wrinkles fast, so by the time I was ready to fold it for dyeing, it was pretty wrinkly already. I first tried folding the strip in half and then again in half length wise, but felt that that would give me too large of a pattern so I decided to go the hard way and start folding on one edge for a smaller width. I took the closest thing available, Ikea catalog cover, and folded a template for myself so I'd know how much to fold over. In the below pictures you can see the first line being folder and creased with fingers. The template is peaking out a little at the bottom of the picture.

Here's a closeup of my fancy template.

After the first fold, I just carefully kept going with the pleats back and forth...

Everything accordion folded: 

After the whole thing was folded, I pressed it on the floor with an iron. From my template, I ripped a triangle that is even on all four sides and used that to start folding my triangles. I tried to iron in between each layer. 

The stack thickens really quick.

Less than half way through I realized this will not stay together as it gets taller, so I decided to tag the corners together with some contrasting thread (easy to pick off later hopefully). I stopped three times to sew, to keep the pile nice and tidy.

Whole 4 yards finished folding. Isn't it pretty!

When I plopped it on it's side everything lined up beautifully and the stack was very neat looking.

This folding process took several hours to do. So I'd recommend doing it without the kids around. It wasn't a perfect job, but I hope the dye will still look decent on it after all the work. Because this is so picture heavy, I am breaking the dye process into another post. The fabric is sitting with dye as I write, and the second half to this tutorial will follow as soon as I am done rinsing it off. :)

I am participating in a link party here.

A New Start

HI! You might be wondering where I've been all this time… We moved to Germany from Seattle, had two kids, and now moved back stateside to TX a week ago. Our lives have been in so much flux it's been hard just remembering to eat meals some days.

I have been keeping up with crafting, but with the kids, it's nearly impossible to try to find time to write about things. I'll try to ship-shape up and let you in on things again.

This blog will be changing focus a little more to baby/kid related items for obvious reasons. I have been making lots of diapers and baby carriers in the last years and hope to post about those. In addition to sewing I also am getting into dyeing fabrics which is pretty exciting, since you never know what you get until after you do it. We will also be moving into a house as soon as we find one, and maybe there will be some fun decorating projects to do. :)

As always my printmaking related things are on my other blog here.

Talk to you soon!
Mirka

In Love with Jane Austen

Its good to know I am not alone in my admiration of Jane Austen and her literature. I have been wanting to post this for months now, so I hope I'm not the last one on the planet that heard about the TV-miniseries "Lost in Austen"...
One day last fall as I was visiting my parents in Finland, I just happened to turn the TV and see the second episode of the Lost in Austen series. I was hooked at once and was very troubled since my vacation was almost over and I would not be able to see the rest of the series. Also, as I had missed the first episode, I was not entirely sure what was going on. (Well, I've seen and read P&P for about 20 times, so I knew that part...)
Well, lucky me, as it happens to be, the series is available in many places. I ended up watching it on YouTube, but you can also get it on Amazon or rent it I'm sure. They even have a webpage dedicated to it. So if you are like me and adore Austen, and have not seen this yet, you have to check it out!

In celebration on Jane Austen, I wanted to pick out some things that were inspired by her books and characters. I could revel in these kinds of things all day long. Especially with my husband deployed, I can indulge all I want, without any looks from under some eyebrows. First, I just love these cards by Austentations. I had to put it here as a big picture. The card itself is witty and I would love to receive one of these, even if I wasn't sick. I love her photography too! As you can tell from her shop name, it is dedicated to Austen inspired cards and little boxes.

Here is my "things" section. Some more beautiful cards by Pearl Marmalade and Yardia. The latter has a lot of beautiful and funny letterpress cards and journals inspired by Austen's characters. The wall decal is by PopVinylStudio and Magic Pug has a whole section in her shop dedicated to Austen digital collage sheets. I am a big fan of cross stitch patterns and this little needlepoint from The Time is Now just cracked me up! Oh, Mr. Darcy.... Who wasn't in love with Colin Firth in P&P... If you are not a fan of Mr. Darcy the shop has many other men to choose from. On the very top are two mugs from Brookish. She has an awesome store also inspired by Austen. There are paperweights, these lovely cups, dishtowels, ornaments, cards etc. A great shop to stop by, everything is so pretty, I had a hard time choosing just one or two things!

Here is a little collection of Austen inspired jewelry. Something old and something new. The beautiful lace necklaces are by White Owl. They were so pretty, I had to choose two. The round earrings and button are from Wicked Pen's store. Wicked Pen also has a selection on beautiful items- some are not directly Austen, but they evoke the spirit which makes them useful as everyday items. The black necklace Random Prefect is made out of a recycled vinyl record! How cool is that. Oh, and it you don't like Austen, her store has so many other designs to choose from. Love the bird necklaces. The earrings on the bottom, were from Aqua Art Studio, but she is closed at least right now as I am writing this post.

I don't see many occasions arising where I would have a chance to wear the kinds of dresses they wore in Jane Austen's time. It would be so fun though. I often think of it, it's alwasy nice to have dreams... These dresses are from (left to right): Matti Online, RedThreaded, and Matti Online.
I almost forgot! I had made a little pendant for a friend myself a while ago. We started with a photograph of her husband's face in profile. We used the transparent shrinky dink, and traced it. Then it was cut out and shrunk. I made a white backround for it to dangle against out of felt and red embroidery thread. It looked very cool. :) Next post, I will be blogging about a fun idea for your loved one who either travels a lot or is gone on deployment like my hubby.

Baby Toys and Diapers

A couple of my friends had or are having babies this summer, so I have been making many gifts and helping out sewing reusable diapers. For baby shower gifts I sewed these two stuffed animals I made patterns for. They were both pretty big, and I hope that the little ones will be able to play with them for a long time. One of them is a spotted doggie and the other a cute elephant with shirt and pants. I am moving towards trying to make patterns from my designs, and after I have enough done, I hope to make a whole book out of it. Kathy Mack from Pink Chalk Studio recommended a helpful book for me to read- Publish Your Own Patterns by Nancy Restuccia. I hope to get some info on how and where to publish the actual pattern since it needs to be the right size and printed hopefully on large sheets of paper. I look forwards to receiving the book in the mail! If you are interested in ordering baby gifts, please convo me through my etsy store.

One of my friends also wanted to make some reusable diapers. Having no kids or any experience babysitting, I had no idea even where to begin with sewing one. The crafty person as I am, I googled it and found a host of websites with more information I could handle. I was drawn to a few websites where the materials and types of diapers were the most clearly explained, so I could figure out what supplies to buy for a diaper making session. As it turns out, many of the the materials are hard to find in the fabric stores around town, so I ended up ordering everything online from Celtic Cloths. I have to recommend them to everyone. Jamie Karutz has put together a great resource explaining the different fabrics available, tips, patterns, and tutorials. Ordering the fabrics also ended up being a last minute thing, and Jamie responded to my emails fast and was able to get my fabric to me before I flew to Finland. I also scoured a gaggle of other websites and tried sewing three different patterns. Here are some of the resources I found most helpful:
Zany Zebra had a great list of tutorials and patterns. There was a link to a visual tutorial and they also sell materials.
Fern and Faerie was nice because it explained different kinds of reusable diapers and how to use them.
The best pattern that worked for us, to make all in one diapers was the Ottobre Design pattern. It was the best size and fit the best around the legs of the baby. It was also closest to the diapers that my friend already had store bought. Ottobre Design is a luscious Finnish sewing and craft magazine with patterns for children and teens. I have flipped through it several times at the store and oo-ed over the beautiful layout and designs in the magazine.
If you are unsure, of how to sew one, I would suggest to sew one out of some scrap fabrics before cutting into the more expensive materials. This is how our first diaper out of the "real" material turned out. I got the foldable elastic from Celtic Cloths that could be sewn on the top of the seam on the outside of the diaper edge. My friend ended up deciding she wanted to have a soaker pad that was just velcroed on top of the diaper instead of putting one inside the diaper.


Here are some other baby inspired gifts and ideas from Etsy:
On the top is a hand screenprinted piece by Strawberry Luna. You can buy a whole set of alphabet prints from her store. The adorable green shoes are from Heather's Hobbies.
In the middle row is a cute baby Mai Tai from My Blessed Baby and a pattern for a cute baby hat from McHat. If you are unsure of your sewing skills, you can convo them through Etsy and have one made for you. I thought the Ouch Pouch from Pillow Sew Cute was an ingenious idea and would make a great baby shower gift. Pair it with a cute sensory toy owl from Cafe Crinkle.
For the green conscious baby, the reusbale Wrap-n-mats now have snack pouches as well. I use one for my lunch sandwiches and am totally in love with it. Etsy also has many stores that sell reusable snack pouches etc.

If you are not familiar with Instructables.com, definitely go check it out. They have great tutorials for just about anything you could ever imagine. Here are just a few picks for our baby themed post: Baby sling by Momma+boys, and a blanket and donkey baby gift set. I posted this one a long time ago for an etsy competition... Hope you enjoyed the article If you are into Jane Austen, I have a super post for you coming up!

A Little Bit of a Photo Diary

I have been making crafty things all along this time, but have not had time to post things as so many things were happening in my life at the same time. Over the weekend I will post more crafty things and tips. But for now, I wanted to share my inspiration. I traveled back to Finland for a month this summer to go see my friends and family. Nature is always a big draw. I am familiar with the woods around our house and love to go for walks to see what I happenstance on. Among the hustle and bustle of making sure I get to see all my friends and family- nature offers a place to relax and recharge my batteries. Here are some pictures that inspire me over my trip.


A view from the country road leading to our summer house. If you are unaware of it, most Finish families own a small summer cottage.

The view of our sauna from the other side of the lake. I love the gnarly old pine trees that insist on growing high up on the large rock by the lake.
It was fall, and the harvest has begun.

A lovely little fairytale mushroom. The one below looks like the most average mushroom, so I named him Mr. Smith.
I love the dance of colors on a mossy hillside.
Some fall colors

A little creek we drove over on our road trip.
I think I will use this picture for art one day. I imagine a bird sitting on top of the post.
Pretty lake views from a friend's summer house.

Mr Beetle.
In the woods the young birches can sometimes be seen bent over from the weight of winter snow.
I wish I could have captured it when the puffs of seeds were floating at their fullest. Here is a picture right after.
Don't cross the line neighbor!
This mushroom seemed to sprawl all over.
What did the doggies see?
Well wouldn't you know... We get a lot of deer, rabbits and fox on our front yard.

It was the best blueberry season ever! I picked gallons of them.
Love the pictures of these colorful berries. I am not sure what they are called in english. In finnish they are Puolukka.

The little bee was right behind me working as I was taking pictures of the berries.
On my walks I ran into an addeer, it had just been run over by something and was still very life like.
I saw this little clever guy as I visited one of my friends in the city.