Sewing

[dancerjodi]

B and I went out last night to browse at fabric for a couple of our Draconcon costumes. He got a pattern and the supplies for his Gendo Ikari outfit, I didn't have so much luck but I did get the fabric to make the cape for my Amidala outfit.

I found some pretty fabrics for the dress but I need to dye them to get the right color. This scares me, the only dying I've done was crappy tie-dying for a hippy costume for some talent show in 7th grade. The fabric I found that I think may be "it" is 100% polyester, which according to RIT isn't recommended.

Any tips?

I'm hopefully going into Chinatown with B on Sunday to paruse more fabric before heading to Central Square for dance practice.

****

Also, I'm trying to figure out what I want from my sweetie for my birthday. The serger idea is out since a good one that would meet my needs would cost a lot more money than we were budgeting and I don't think I have the time now to play with the thing and learn how to use it. One thought was that it *is* time for me to get some latex, I NEED some, I mean, I don't have any. Any suggestions on where? Maybe I should wait until the summer Fetish Flea comes around? I wonder when that is . . .

Ramble, ramble :)

Comments

[lillydrag.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, I would suggest getting a swatch of the fabric and testing the dye on it. Really, natural fibers work best.

What color will you be dyeing the fabric? If it's a very dark or rich color, you will need to pull out the heavy artillary. The thing to do is follow the machine dyeing instructions, but stop your washing machine before the cycle dumps the dye water and starts the spin/rinse process.

Stop it and turn it back so that the wash cycle is repeated with the dye water that's already in there. Another good trick is to just stop it and let it sit for a half an hour. You'll get more intense color that way.

Oh, I don't know where to get latex, but there's poly-vinyl-ish stuff in red and black by the yard at sew-fisticated fabrics in Cambridge. It's on O'Brien Parkway, I think, in a plaza with a Star Market, and a now closed Mars Music. The stuff is pretty cheap if I recall, $5 a yard or less.

Dyeing

[dancer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the dying advice . . . using the machine just intimidates me. I put soap in, turn it on and don't really know what it does until its done. This will be an adventure :)

I'm dying it a gold/yellow color.

As far as latex, I'm not looking to make something out of it, but to buy something made out of it :)

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i've used rit dye on synthetics before. the color control isn't as great but i was successful in dying a 1960's baby blue poofy dress (no netting, just what, organza and taffeta perhaps? both synthetic) a blackish color. actually, i'd call it raisen for the taffeta and black for the organza.

i've also dyed a magenta button tee (cotton) black, but my point here is i succeeded in dying the plastic buttons black, too!

how, you may wonder, did i do all this? i used RIT dye's boiling technique. :) i boiled the devil out of those items. :)

i'm not too dye saavy beyond rit, but i seem to recall that http://www.prochemical.com/ may have something to fit your needs or would be able to direct you to a resource.

Thanks!

[dancer.livejournal.com]

Someone told me that Dharma Trading is also good for dyes and advice . . . I'll be checking all these guys out :)

Re: Dharma

[cordelya.livejournal.com]

Dharma is what I was going to suggest...