Okay, so today I was dyeing Sherpa suede fabric for Bofur hats. *nodnod* It was fun. I mixed up a boiling vat of black polyester dye on the stove, and proceeded to add my Sherpa. Everything seemed to be going well, but then - the stick I was using to remove the fabric from the vat slipped.
Splat!
That was the noise of roughly five pounds of wet fabric sloshing back into the dye, spattering the wall, the counter, the stove top, the toaster, and the cupboard with concentrated black liquid. I won't deny a bit of "French" escaped my lips at that particularly happy moment.
Calmly, I removed the pot of dye to the back porch, then scrubbed the dye off the various surfaces it had splattered. Piece of cake. Okay, okay, maybe I wasn't calm, and maybe the wall behind the stove still looks like a weird, green Dalmatian, but still... I couldn't fixate over it. I had to be moving on. Living my artistic life.
So I resumed the dyeing process out on the back porch. (The back porch is now ruined, but I digress.) Thankfully, out of all this trauma, a Bofur hat came to be, and a valuable lesson was learned: dyeing ruins stuff. Be okay with having your stuff ruined, because it's clearly for a really good cause.
Once I'd had my fill of Bofur hats and their ilk, I decided I was still dying to dye. So I made a new batch of dye and overdyed this awesome white fabric I'd gotten from Hancock Fabrics the other day. The design woven into it was super dwarven, and I thought I'd bring it out more by overdyeing it in a grey-blue.
Which I did. And it worked. I don't know why that shocked me so much, but I was truly, genuinely astonished my evil scheme had actually succeeded, and the design didn't accept the dye while the fabric around the design did. Which is 100% what the costume designing team of The Hobbit did for Thorin's velvet over coat. They found a grey velvet with an awesome design and overdyed it, and it was majestic.
Now I've just got to figure out what to make with my dwarven fabric. Won't work for Thorin's coat because it's not velvet, but it looks like something he'd wear. An original design, maybe? *schemes*
I like your amazingly amazing dwarven fabric. I'm tempted to ask when you'll be making a dwarrowdam costume, just because I think imagining baby!Kili in a skirt (like they did in the old days) is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteFeeling sorry for the Bofur hats and their ilk. Hats need love, too!
Yay for your commently comment! I am definitely going to be attempting a dwarrowdam costume in the near future, especially now that I have my amazing "Cloaks and Daggers" Hobbit costumes/props book with fantastic pictures of all the costumes, including those worn by female dwarves.
DeleteI may, in fact, make a beautimous dwarrowdam dress (at least partially) out of the fabric I've just overdyed, because it would make a lot more sense, I think, in the form of a dress. It's more decorative than the fabrics most of the male dwarves wear.