Thursday, April 20, 2017

PART 2 - Indigo Dyed Nuno Felted Seamless Dress - The Reveal


To see how I made the prefelts, click HERE

Using many resists, including a godet on both the back and front to make a full skirted dress, I created the nuno felted seamless dress out of the indigo dyed prefelts, silks and wool roving by pieceing them on the front of the resist overlapping the edges of the resist so that they would seam to the sides and the shoulders of the back. 

 Once I worked the front with my hands and my new electric car buffer (thank you Mary Papaj), I flipped it and created the back of the dress. Then some rolling, more with the electric car buffer and then some fulling and voila...THE REVEAL (Drum roll):


Ready to party with my new dress and coordinated leggings and tee shirt.  I'm wearing a lapis necklace, silver bracelets and earring, blue shoes, blue toe nail polish and even blue eye glasses!



I used a portion of the shibori dyed prefelt as the main attraction in the bodice.  I cut up the shibori balls and used them sparingly on the front.
 
 I shibori tied and indigo dyed a pair of white cotton/spandex leggings that I bought on Dharma Trading.  These tights are OK but a bit saggy.  I'm on the look out for some other white leggings with more stretch.  None the less, they look adorable with the dress.




The back and left side

The back with the shibori wrapped portion at the top


I love the little flower on the right















Wednesday, April 19, 2017

PART 1 - Indigo Dyed Nuno Felted Seamless Dress - Making and Dyeing Prefelts

 
 I am really into indigo and now that my hair is platinum and no longer red, I have been wearing a lot of blue.  Indigo is my blue of choice and since it is a natural color, it is actually is a beautiful color on all skin types and hair colors. 

 I decided to make an indigo dyed full skirted dress for myself starting with various white prefelts.  Above is a pic of the indigo dyed prefelts along with fabrics and wool roving that I also dyed in the indigo pot.

I made a few prefelts:  1.  one layer of sheer silk silk gauze with one layer of merino wool roving.  2.  two layers of merino wool roving laid perpendicular to each other and 3. one layer of silk habotai and one layer of merino wool roving.

I wetted them out and then rolled each a few hundred times just to the prefelt stage.




Once it was at the prefelt stage and could be picked up carefully, I shibori bundled and tied it as in various ways with the wool side up  1.  Flat marbles closed with small hair type rubber bands, 2.  stones closed with large rubber bands, 3.  pinching up the fabric and tying it with Japanese cotton thread, 4.  making balls from wool roving and enclosing them in the prefelt and tying them off with Japanese cotton thread.

Lesson learned:  Decide if you want to make your shibori bundles with the wool side facing up, which I did, or the silk side facing up.  It may make a difference depending on how you want to use it to create your felted garment.




I




Following Dharma Trading's recipe for using Indigo crystals, I made my pot and starting dipping and dyeing wearing my trusty long yellow gloves. 

To remove the flat marbles, I stuck a needle between the wrapped rubber band and then cut it with a small scissors




This is the silk side of the marbles and stones which I liked better than the wool side.

The photo above is the wool side of the pinched fabric tied with Japanese cotton thread.  I like the silk side better in the photo below.



STAY TUNE FOR PART 2 - THE REVEAL OF THE FINISHED DRESS...






FOR THE REVEAL OF THE DRESS, GO TO: