Dyeing playsilks - Part 2

Part 1, which describes my experience with dyeing playsilks with icing colors is here.

This time I decided to go for specialized silk dyes in hopes of achieving a more predictable and even result. I wanted a dye that would be easy to use and not involve specialized equipment or harsh chemicals. After reading about all silk dyes I decided to try Jacquard Acid Dyes and ordered these colors (from top clockwise): Cherry Red, Burnt Orange, Sun Yellow, Brilliant Kelly Green, Sky Blue, Silver and Brown.

I added some orange to brown because I wanted a warmer color and it came out shimmery golden, very pretty. Green again disappointed me, I was hoping for a grass green and this is quite bright *sigh*. Cherry red is a bit too cherry, still don't have my bright red. I relied on them calling this color primary in their palette but it was a mistake, may be will order some other red next time. But yellow, grey, blue and orange were perfect. I still had varying degrees of unevenness but much less than with icing colors, may be because of the dye or may be because I prewashed with Synthrapol.

Here is what I did (took me quite a while to convert 1 lb of fabric to two playsilks).
Prewash your silks with Synthrapol. I did not know that the first time but any residue on the silk, like leftover silkworm gum, oil from hands, etc. will cause dye not to absorb evenly. Synthrapol removes all that, as well as leftover loose dye afterwards.
For 2 35" square playsilks I boiled 2 liters of water, added 1 tbsp of vinegar and after that 1.75 of 1/4 tsp dye (this is a bit mind twisting, feel free to add 1/2 tsp but you really need that little dye, very economical). Mix very well, red for some reason was very stubborn and did not want to dissolve nicely. Add wet silk. Keep on low heat, just under boiling point, for 30 minutes stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool down. Wash in Synthrapol, let dry until slightly wet and iron. Do not wait till completely dry or you will not be able to remove small wrinkles.

I also ordered a 12-pack of silk handkerchiefs and dyed them with my bigger silks. They came out very pretty and are a good size to wrap small dolls, use in play scenes, make small animals, etc.

Dyeing playsilks - Part 1

Playsilks are one of the best toys you can give your child. They are completely open-ended, beautiful and natural. There are so many things they can be used for, in any age: peekaboo, costumes, bird's wings, sack, blanket for a doll, props for imaginative play such as river, lake, meadow, mountains (cover a box with a grey silk), walls and roof of a house, Kitten also loves to use blue silk as water in a play bath for dolls to wash in, etc. etc. etc.
They are not prohibitively expensive but I liked the challenge of dying my own and also to try and get some colors that are not widely available, such as brown and grey.

First I decided to try Wilton's Icing Colors because it is completely non-toxic and there is a wide variety of colors. Here is what I did:
1. Make sure that you silk's edge is finished with silk thread, cotton or polyester will not take up the dye. I get my silks from here, they have the best price as far as I am aware. Usually I use 35" square but they have a variety of sizes, even handkerchiefs.
2. I boiled a (metal) pot of water, about 0.5 gallon for each silk, but basically so that it can swim freely. Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and dye. The amount of dye will depend on the color, I just kept adding until the color of water seemed intense enough. The more the better as these come out pretty light. I think on yellow I spent almost an entire tub and it still came out as very very light. Mix very well.
3. Wet your silk in water and submerge into dye. Leave for 30 minutes or longer, stirring frequently.
4. Rinse under cold water until water runs clear. Cover your iron board to prevent any leftover dye to come through. Iron while still slightly dump or you won't be able to get rid of tiny creases. But do not iron while soaking wet or you will have permanent lines as the water evaporates.

I was somewhat disappointed with the colors, they are pretty but very unpredictable, light and I was not able to get some colors that I needed. From top clockwise these are the Wilton colors I used: lemon yellow, leaf green (came out more like aqua), sky blue, violet, Christmas red (or may be it is pink, they are so disappointingly similar I can't tell the difference), brown (I know, completely lilac!), pink, and orange.

I also left one white. They do have a lot of variations in dye intensity, even though I was stirring them frequently. I guess this is just the downside of doing it at home in a somewhat small pot.

Next I decided to try dying with special silk dyes. Check out Dying playsilks - Part 2!

Rainbow Elves tutorial

As I have promised, here is a Rainbow Elf tutorial.
What you need:
White pipe cleaner
Wooden bead 1/2" diameter
Scraps of felt
Matching thread
Needle
Scissors
Wire cutter to cut pipe cleaner
Glue (I used school glue)
Paper to make patterns
Clear tape and stapler - handy for cutting out felt

1. Cut two pieces of pipe cleaner - 2" and 4 1/2" (or, if you are using a different size bead, you can adjust lengths to look proportionate).

2. Bend the long piece in half, stick it in the bead. At this point already, Kitten grabbed it, said "doll" and was quite happy to play with it. See, kids don't need much to spark imagination! Bend the ends of a short piece about 1/4" to make hands.

3. Put arms piece in the middle of body piece against the bead and twist the body a couple of times to secure arms.

4. Now it's time to make clothes pattern. Lay your elf on a piece of paper and loosely draw around it, making a dress or an overall. You could also make separate pants, sew them to the shoulders and put a shirt over it. Be creative and make your own designs! Fold the drawing in half and cut around half of the outline, creating a symmetrical piece of clothing.

5. For a hat draw a triangle with the pictured measurements and round the bottom side.

6. Cut out from felt one hat piece and a double dress/overall, laying the shoulder part of the pattern on fold of felt. Make a small hole for the neck. For a good tutorial on how to cut out felt visit Wee Folk Art blog.

7. Take the head bead off and slide the overall on the neck. Stitch the sides, sleeves and inner pants' seams using the whip stitch. Bend the ends on legs under about 1/4", trimming the pipe cleaner if needed, creating feet.

8. Stitch the straight sides of the hat using a whip stitch. Put some glue on the neck and slide the bead back on (I then took if off and slid it on the other way to reduce the amount of glue around the neck). Spread a little bit of glue on the back of the head and glue the hat in place, tilting it back. Make sure to choose the face side without imperfections.

9. And there you have it, your own personal elf, gnome, dollhouse doll or whatever else you come up with. Don't forget to share your results with me, I would love to see your creations!

Bonnet Tutorial

This bonnet is great to cover your newborn's head, for a baptizing ceremony (like I used it) or for a dress-up bin. This is a pretty simple bonnet but my problem was the lack of a pattern. I knew how I would construct it but what pieces to cut? So I tried constructing my own pattern and it worked! I will give you my pattern, which was made to fit Kitten's head when she was 18 months old and her head circumference was 18 inches (I know, she has a small head, for an average baby it will probably be a newborn size). I will also explain how to draw your own pattern.

What you will need - 1/3 yard of exterior fabric, 1/4 yard of lining fabric, 1 yard of ribbon, thread. The amount of fabric will depend on your size but this should be plenty. Allow extra for one way design fabric.

1. Cut out pieces according to pattern: from exterior fabric cut 1 back (pattern, 1/4" SA - seam allowance included), 1 side (cut 4.5" by 16.5" (1/4" SA included) and optionally cut off all angles according to the diagram - 1/2" from short sides and 4.25" from long sides) and 1 ruffle (24.5" by 3.75", 3/8 SA included) pieces; from lining fabric cut 1 back and 1 side pieces, from ribbon or other cord cut 2 pieces as long as would like your ties to be (you can always trim later, so better leave some extra length). I advise you to cut 1 back and 1 side piece from other fabric, sew them together as in step 3 and try it on your child. It does not take long but you may find out that you need to make adjustments, since every head is different.

Disregard the pieced pieces, I was running out of fabric

2. If you need a different size of bonnet, lay your child with her back of the head on a piece of paper and quickly, before she rans away, trace the head, holding your pencil almost perpendicular to the paper (if you angle it toward the head you will have too much of a difference between front width and back width, which will make for a difficult shaping and lots of adjustments). Measure the distance between crown of the head and how low you want your bonnet to be and draw the bottom accordingly. Add seam allowances along all edges. Cut out (it is best to fold the pattern in half and cut a symmetrical piece) and see how it looks on your child's head. If it seems to be about right, measure the circumference of the rounded part and this will be the length of the side piece. Its width will depend on your child's measurement - measure from the back of the head to approximately hairline or where you want your bonnet to end (remember to count for a ruffle if you are making one). Add seam allowances to the width (they are already added for length since you measured it from the back piece). I chose to make the ends narrower, so that it fits the curve of the head better, but you may skip that, I don't believe it made that much of a difference. I just pinched the side while Kitten was wearing it to see how much width I like to subtract and them made it a gradual symmetrical transition. I ended up subtracting 1/2" from top and bottom of the short sides and 4.25" form both ends of the long side, see the pattern, it is much clearer in drawing. For the ruffle (although you can omit it if you like) I multiplied the length of the side piece by 1.5, if you want a fuller ruffle, you may multiply by 2. For the width, decide how wide you want your ruffle to be, add seam allowance (I recommend at least 3/8") and multiply by 2. If you are making your own pattern, it is especially important to make a muslin.

3. Pin the side piece to the back piece right sides facing. Pin the center and bottoms first and see how much fabric you have left. I wanted to have a couple of tucks in the back, so I spaced them evenly around the center back (fold in half to find the center) and just played with them until their width was about the same. Stitch. Repeat for the lining.

4. Pin the lining to the exterior along the bottom edge right sides facing, aligning side seams and pinning ribbons in between and directed inside the bonnet. Leave at least your seam allowance and a little more between ribbon and side. Stitch, making sure not to catch extra ribbon in your stitching.

5. To make a ruffle, fold the ruffle piece in half lengthwise right sides facing and stitch together 2 short sides. Trim the corners. Turn the right side out and press. Stitch 2 rows of longest stitch (leave long tail on both sides), I do one 1/4" from the edge and the second one between the edge and the first row. Make sure they do not cross each other! Next, tie top and bottom threads of both rows on one end. 

6. Find the middle and quarters on your bonnet and ruffle and pin the ends and those places ONLY to the exterior fabric. Ruffle should be facing away from the front and be attached to the right side of the exterior fabric. Grab the two top threads of the ruffle and pull gently, easing fabric along the threads. Keep pulling and sliding until the length of your ruffle matches the length of the bonnet front. Spread the gathers so that all quarter sections are even. Stitch in place 1/2" away from the edge, so that gathering stitches are enclosed.

7. Turn down the seam allowance on the lining and hand stitch in place, encasing the ruffle seam allowance. Top stitch along the bonnet face opening.

Please tell me if there are any questions or something is unclear. The explanation is long and it probably sounds more complicated that it actually is, but believe me, this is really easy. If you make a bonnet using this pattern, please send me a link, I would love to see it.

Wooden Waldorf blocks

I love the wooden blocks from Waldorf stores, like these ones, they are just so natural and open-ended but are also quite expensive. I thought it should not be too difficult to make my own and was right! The most difficult part was to find the right wood. Here in Texas you just don't so easily find smooth-barked trees in a park like the ones up north. But I finally found a couple of nice dry juniper sticks and set to work. My husband taught me how to use a power saw (I loved it!) and I created different length blocks. I did not think it necessary to do them in increments like the ones in stores but I could have. Next I sanded the cut ends and removed sharp side branches. I finished cut ends with an oil-beeswax mix (directions I used can be found here) and polished them with a cloth. They smell divine and I just love how they turned out. Now I need to find other diameters and also make some longitudinal cuts to create long narrow pieces. So many possibilities with these! Below are some ways we have already used them.

 Stacking

 Building structures and furniture

Nature table

Knitted slippers

We spent 5 weeks around holidays in cold Midwest and I made Kitten these slippers.

They are very easy to do and are knitted in one piece each. Basically you are making a T-shape. Start from the horizontal bar. Measure your child's leg from the point where you would like the slipper to stop, around the heel and back up to that point again. Determine how many stitches it will need in your yarn (or just cast on, knit several rows and try it on like I did). Continue working in whatever stitch you like, mine is garter stitch until your piece is long enough to wrap around child's ankle. After that measure around child's sole and determine how many stitches you need to cast off on each side. Continue until you reach the sole's length and a little extra to go around the heel. Decrease by knitting every 2 stitches together every other row until you have less than 10 left. Break off yarn leaving a long tail, pull it through remaining stitches and stitch until you reach your cast off row (if you would like for it to look more like a sock keep going to the top). Sew the back together.
Now, if you want these to be slippers and not socks, you need to make soles from leather or suede or they will be very slippery. I traced Kitten's foot with the slipper on and just did a mirror image for the other foot. I cut soles from suede and pre-made holes because it was pretty thick. After that I just stitched them on trying to keep them on the opposite side from the opening, which was trickier than you may think!

The idea came from All Year Round (Lifeways) book but I modified all the directions and came up with a more generalized way, so I thought I'd share :)