This time around, I used a 1/4 a cup of a mixture of Red Wine and Light Red Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes, and a 1/4 cup of the Black Cherry Fiber Reactive Procion Dye. Also, to help prevent uneven dyeing, after mixing in the dye and salt into the washing machine, I laid the fabric flat on the water and circled it around the agitator. I also used less salt, about half of what is suggested on the instructions. I was worried, because there is really no way to take the fabric out mid wash and see if the dye is adhering.
I set my alarm on my phone to go off every five minutes, and kept resetting the washing machine so that my dye bath didn't drain out. I initially had it set for every eight minutes, but when it got to six or seven minutes, I heard the dye bath start draining and decided to set it for a shorter time, even though it meant more trips to the machine. I left it in with the dye for twenty minutes, and then stopped the machine and added the soda ash. Since I had circled the fabric around the agitator, I couldn't get the fabric to the other side of the machine, as is suggested when adding the soda ash. I moved it as far from the wall as possible and hoped for the best when adding the soda ash mixture. (As the soda is used to fix the dyes to the fabric, if it gets on the fabric directly, it can cause dark splotches.)
After an hour agitating with the soda ash, I put the fabric through two rinse cycles, then a hot wash cycle with Tide Clear Detergent. Then it was into the dryer, and then back into the washer to get the residual salt off of the fabric. During the rinse cycle of this wash, I put in some Downy Fabric Softener to get the softness of the fabric back after the dyeing.
I am very excited to say that the fabric took the dye beautifully, with no splotches. I really like the color that resulted as well - the previous color looked a bit washed out, but this is a vibrant deep color. I ironed the fabric on the wrong side, and then, feeling motivated and energetic despite it being 10:30 at night on Sunday, I marked the sewing lines for the body according to the instructions for making a yukata from a roll. A while ago, I had copied this webpage into a word document and added measurements in inches on every step. This is a great resource, as it provides details for sewing the kimono in the most authentic way possible. Prior to washing and dyeing all the fabric, I had zigzag stitched all the raw edges to prevent fraying in the wash, so that made it easier to mark. I did realize, after some frustration in trying to get my top and bottom edges even, that one of my body panels had shrunk more than the other in length, so I attached one end to a hanger, put it on the front door, and then aligned the fabric correctly, and had my husband hold the fabric taut while I pinned the ends together, and then cut the ends even. Marking the sewing lines for the front and back panels took until nearly 12:30am for two reasons. 1) It took me nearly thirty minutes of fiddling with the fabric to realize that one piece was longer than the other. 2) My cat decided she wanted attention and made herself a fabric weight, which made it difficult to draw lines with my quilting ruler as I had to keep moving her. Also she kept trying to pull the pencil out of my hand while I was drawing lines, and tried to steal it a few times when I had put it down and was arranging my fabric. I will post progress pictures later tonight of the fabric and the lines drawn on it.
I am very excited to have the lines drawn, as that is the tedious part. Now I just have to decide if I want to embroider the fabric before or after sewing the body. There are pros and cons of each way. If I embroider the fabric before sewing the body, it will be less bulky while I am embroidering, but the designs might not match up perfectly when I sew the fabric. If I embroider after, I can make sure the designs match up perfectly, but it will be harder to sew due to the bulk of the kimono, and also I will have to make sure to embroider all the way to the seam so there is no gap, but not over the seam itself. That way if the seam rips for some reason, the embroidery will not be ruined. Due to the fact that the seam lines are drawn prior to sewing, I may go with embroidering first, but I am still not sure. My main concern is that, as I have made the neck cut, I will need to sew from the neck down, and the embroidery will start from the bottom of the kimono and go up, which leaves the possibility that it will not match up, and that would really upset me. For that reason, I will probably go with the sew first then embroider method. I think that the extra work will really be worth it, and I want this kimono to be perfect.
For the sashiko practice, I copied the design using tracing paper, and then transferred it to a scrap for fabric from the first dye job using a yellow quilters marking pencil, which I like because it doesn't brush off easily (you remove it with a wet cloth). I initially tried the embroidery using a small crochet thread (size 10 I believe), but the needle I had to use (size ten) for that was to thick for the fabric and was not only difficult to get through, but was also leaving large holes. I went with a smaller needle size (a size six), and used three strands of embroidery floss and got much better results.
As a side note, I purchased all the materials for dyeing the fabric, and the fabric itself, from Dharma Trading Company, which is a great resource for any sort of fabric art. They have wonderful customer service as well. The fabric for the body of the kimono is a Bemberg Rayon Twill, which was unfortunately a promotional fabric. The lining is Rayon Voile. I luckily got both on sale, as I bought 12 yards of the twill and 7 yards of the voile. Instructions for dyeing can also be found on Dharma Trading's website, as can many other instructions and tutorials. They also have a good selection of books. (I am particularly interested in the fabric sculpting section of their website, but that is on hold for the time being.) I was not compensated in any way for saying this, I just really love Dharma Trading Company!
I will try to post some progress pictures tonight.
Thanks for stopping by!
Kristin ^_^
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