Creating A Peticoat Parade

Anyone who has ever dyed clothing before knows what a dangerous event this can be.."The Dye'athon"

No white piece of fabric is safe from being transformed into something colourful in an instant and where to stop!!!!!...

I had some nylon nighties ready for a transformation, and I have the hugest collection of old doilies which I cant help but buy every time I visit a 2nd hand shop, theyre all mine! MINE!!!
Dye Dye Dye......

While the doilies are drying i consult my bible of dreams, everything I want to create goes into this magic book and it always comes out a reality, its the rule of the book!......

so I draw up a design of the things I can do to transform these dresses ......
Hmmmm seems someone else has been drawing they're dreams too.....

everything is dry, this is where I start......

I have lots of different dyed doilies, some plain, some tie dyed, some dip dyed.

When you dye fabric it has to have a natural fibre somewhere in it, the very darker dyed fabric is obviously 100% natural, its pretty much like dipping wood in dye and a piece of plastic.  To find out if something can be dyed you can do a lighter test, tease off a bit of the fibres, cotton, or a cut of the fabric if you can, light the end with the flame and let it burn a second, blow it out and press between your fingers, if its soot it will dye, if this little morsel of melted plastic burns your finger ( hehe ) it wont dye, I have spent many a morning in the corners of op shops lighting little wads of wool! 

Nighties are usually NYLON ( which actually means New York and London, the places it was created) and they dye fabulously......

scrounge up some pins from your pin tray.....

and pin them where you want them sewn, pin head on the inside so it looks like a clock, this way you can sew straight over the pins without having to stop.....

make sure you have a familiar watching every move you make just in case its wrong!!!.....

and put the pedal to the metal and sew...........

I also screen print, so I put some names on my dresses with pretty purple paint.......

so whoever wears this masterpiece can be ohh so proud....

I also have some wooden indian stamps so I stamped a mandala onto the blue dress with fabric paint, now fabric paint can be pricey and so many people make it now too which means there are some bad paints out in the world, when i dont have the right paint colour and im doing stamping, most of the time i will use test pots of house paint, interior or exterior, you have the hugest selection of colours, they are only a few dollars and they dont wash off, ever!!!!, they do the most amazing printing because the paint texture is so creamy and smooth and you dont have to heat set anything like fabric paints, once its dry its colour fast......

I cut a paper circle and placed it on my dress so I could make a perfect circle, then stamped around it...

more purple stamping....

I made a spiral stamp from a piece of paper, curled and taped on one side so it stayed in place, I thought it worked really well....

on the front I had sewen on the doilies and pure silk ribbon bows, this top doilie is a pocket, so teeny so cute....

and I printed a paper moon girl on the purple dress with gold butterflies....

sweet heart buttons and purple bows.....

this is what they looked like, the back with a tie dye on the side......

eww sew pretty front....

the turquoise pretty front..see the open pocket??.....

can you see that the bottom has been dip dyed in purple.....

and once I added the dots with the end of a paintbrush thats not the brush (for perfect circles) and added some gold it looked so powerful, like any mandala should....

we thought you would like to see them modeled, so I tied a dress to my munchy and we went on a photo shoot, ( thanks daddy for taking the photos)

dancing in the fields so you can see how free you could feel in a dress so beautiful...

they just feel so silky and nice, summer festivals here we come!! Ohh whats that, its Autum next week?? ohh well, maybe next year!.....

I waaaas going to keep these dresses, I actually made them for myself for the weekend because we're going camping and I love to dress up when Im camping, but I feel I can let them go, so I have listed them on Etsy and if any of you lovelies want them you can go to some summer music festivals for me, please do!!!

I hope i have taught you some techniques, or given you hints, inspiration or a bit of knowledge somewhere..

Thanyou for all your past comments, I am still getting around all the blogs, Im so nosey though and spend a 1/2 hour at each, as well as the ones I follow, so you can see where my time managment is going wrong.  Im getting to you!!

Have a great weekend and I will see you all back here on Monday, Im hoping that Shona Cole's new book "The Artistic Mother" will arrive in my mailbox tomorrow before we leave so I can spend the weekend reading,

Ohh thats right Im camping with toddlers!!! hehe xxx

sheree xxx