Weekly diary (31/03/2017)

This week we learned how to fit a collar and a cuff . Also i researched and experimented with natural dyes .

Cutting out my shirt back and front , the sleeve , cuff and collar .

Sewing the shoulder of the shirt together and the side sem .Because the sem allowence is different to a full scale shirt , i had to use the pattern . If i used a different sem allowence hen the collar wouldn't have fit properly .

Cutting my collar in half because i am only doing half a shirt . The two notches on this collar are guide lines for positioning and fitting the collar .

 

The collar before i turned it inside out to hide the stiching .

This is the sleeve inside out , to fit the cuff you sew it to the sleeve inside out and back to front  This makes the cuff have no stitching on the outside of the sleeve , giving a cleaner finish .

 

Sewing the sleeve and turning it right side out after i have fitted the cuff.

The pros and cons of using natural dyes .

pros;

1. You save alot of money on dye .
2. You can get the colour you want and put it on the fabric you want 
3. It links with my breif because the American Indian tribes used their own homemade dyes and paints.
4. Better for the enviroment .

                                                                      Cons;

1. It takes alot of time to make , and sometimes it doesnt come out how you wanted.
2. It takes alot of experimenting and research.
3. Making the natural dyes can stain your pots and utilitues .
4. Every fruit has a different amount of pigment inside of it , so you can never get the same result twice .

Experimenting with natural dyes .

Red Cabbage ;

To get the most pigment possibl from the red cabbage i found that if i cut it into smaller chunks then i can get the most pigment possible for my dye .

I then boiled the Red cabbage for an hour .This extracts all of the colour from the cabbage.

 

Then i extracted the liquid from the boiled cabbage and then let it stand to cool because natural dyes work better when they're cold . Then i dipped my calico into the dye and left it to soak for 12 hours .(after the calico had been boiled in salty water to act as a colour fixative .)
The colour was a very nice light purple , although purple isn't on my colour palette i was happy that i had learnt something new for future reference .




                                                               Experimenting with tea dye ;

I added 500 ml of boiling water from the kettle to 5 tea bags and stirred . Then i waited for the water to cool and added my fabric.

I then left my calico in the dye bath for 12 hours . I was happy with the colour because it was the same brown from the colour  because it is the same as the brown from the American Indian garment research images i have found .