Itajime Silk Scarves!

Bright Green Magic Windows Itajime

FINALLY! I mixed a new batch of procion dyes and I am so happy! Not only do I have new brighter bolder colors, but I even added a few new colors! Kelly Green, Maroon & Turquoise!

I started by cutting a few 6' lengths of china silk. then I cut each length into thirds so that each piece would yield 3 panels that are a great size for scarves once finished. with smaller pieces of silk, I was easily able to miniaturize my folds so that all the patterns would be smaller and  more detailed.

I thought that precision would be easier with smaller pieces, but when applying the dye, I lost control and got sloppy. Time for the eye droppers and a bit more patience I think.

I LOVE the Maroon & Yellow piece. I am a bit less pleased with the Red & Yellow piece, but the boldness of the colors is really something to appreciate.

The Bright Green Magic Windows piece is my favorite and I do not think I will be able to part with it. This will be a pattern I will experiment more with in the future! I love it so much, but I have to say, the photos do not do the colors justice.

Bright Green Magic Windows Itajime

Maroon & Yellow Itajime

Maroon & Red Itajime

Red & Yellow itajime

New Square Silk Itajime Shibori Panels

detail of Bottle Green/Ocean Blue Silk Itajime panel

I wanted to do something different from the star patterns I have been exploring lately, so I got a bit creative when clamping down the resists. I had no idea what to expect when opening up the Bottle Green / Ocean Blue piece, but I am very happy with the result, and that's half the fun of the itajime folding technique, or any tie dye technique as far as I'm concerned.

I found a 1/4" ball hem sewing machine foot at work last week in an old notions box, tried it out and have decided it might be the perfect way to finish the silk pieces and make silk scarves for my Etsy Shop (soon to come!!)   I pre-finished these two square panels (prior to folding & dying them, but I think in the future I will finish all the hems after the fact rather that before as it will allow better control of the pattern and how the look.

More work to be done over the 3 day weekend!

Bottle Green & Ocean Blue Silk Itajime Panel

detail of Purple, Blue & Teal Silk Itajime Panel

                                                     Purple, Blue & Teal Silk Itajime Panel

Silk Itajime, breaking the rules!

Well, ever the conservationist, I feel terrible about the idea of dumping my poorly mixed dyes down the drain. After getting such beautiful results in Florida with better mixed dyes (thanks to Mom), I feel like I should start from scratch with freshly mixed, brighter dyes, but I thought I could get just one more set of silks dyed first.

Then I decided to break the rules. I decided to do an Orange /Purple panel fully knowing that I would most likely get mud color where they mix (or so I've been told). what do you think? I think rules are meant to be broken! This Panel will get cut down the middle to make 2 long silk scarves!

The Jewel tone Purple / Red / Bottle Green panel really did not look special when I finished putting dye down. I know that it was poorly folded (as you can see the dyed areas are different sizes). A cleaner fold will give a more consistent pattern. This one also kind of had a muddy look until I washed it out.

Success!

Jewel Tone Silk Panel & Orange / Purple Silk Panel

another view....