Christmas Chiffons

I finally finished 3 of the 4 chiffon jackets that I was working on in late October. Life interruptions.... partys, visiting relatives , throwing a party for 50, holiday events, and other diversions such as the gala outfit that I made myself. If you love fabric, and fit, and have the patience of Job, DO make yourself a spaghetti strapped princess seamed cocktail dress from heavy black charmeuse, lined with hand dyed habotai, belted and topped with a simple black chiffon jacket. Note the hint of sarcasm? Honestly, a 7 section dress challenged my math abilities, and when I finished working with all that slippery silk I would have slit my wrists had it not been for the fact that the dress was an absolute dream to wear.

The first jacket and charmeuse tank were delivered on time on Nov 7th. See the picture of Sugar in the Sapphire chiffon with black floral detailing on sleeve and front over the black charmeuse tank. The photography is bad. The beautiful Sapphire color is Dharma's fiber reactive Sapphire. The black detailing was acid dye.

The second construction was the pretty black and blue jacket that I have named Night Dive. I discharged the selected areas on Dharma pre-dyed black chiffon. Dharma discharge paste was used and the discharged areas were over dyed with Colorhue dyes. The title of the piece was chosen because the design and coloration reminded me of snorkeling one day in the Caribbean surrounded by thousands of iridescent juvenile squid and other little sea creatures.

The third construction was the navy discharge jacket. I have posted a pic of it with the accompanying navy stretch charmeuse pinned to the form to make the jacket detailing more evident. No over dye was used on this piece. Jacquard's deep navy acid dye was used for the base color of the jacket and the charmeuse. The discharge agent was thiox. As silk dyers/painters know, photographing silk is tricky. In reality the base color of the jacket and the charmeuse are identical. The flash caused the difference you see in the photo. I am claiming this piece for myself. It is still a bit of a work in process as I need to decide what I am going to do with the navy charmeuse and I am tempted to embellish the discharged areas a little more...

There is fourth copy of this jacket that has yet to be sewn. It is also a discharged black with an olive green over dye. This piece was made with hand dyed black chiffon using a Jacquard acid dye. When I sew it next week I will post a pic and detail the host of horrors that befell me as I worked to discharge the hand dyed black chiffon.

Shaving Cream for silk screening with acid dyes

I like to share my discoveries that I believe are observations that could help others. This one is short and sweet: For all screen printing except deconstructed you can throw out your alginate if you are screen printing. You can create a silk screened fabric that is much more interesting and controllable by mixing your dyes with shaving cream. You can get your desired intensity of color- or a pastel very easily, and this method will not effect your ability to set acid dyes in any way you like- steaming or chemical setting. It also works equally well with Procion MX.

The shaving cream stays put and is light on the screen. That makes things so much easier for me. I am not fighting a giant load of heavy alginate on my 24 x 30 screen (my biggest screen).

Screen through monofiliament screen or a screen set up using curtain sheers. Either is fine.

Do not be afraid to use a hard edged object in lieu of a squeegee. Some people use credit cards, I am currently using a plastic french curve. I think the curve is good for me right now because of my arthritis, but it does show that just about anything can be used to push the dyes through the screen. I have also used an el-cheapo plastic putty knife with a 6 inch blade that works beautifully.

The ultimate easiest thing is to screen print with Color Hue dyes. I LOVE INSTANT GRATIFICATION!