Tic Tac Toe Game

This game from Embroidery Playground jumped out at me this morning as I was looking a Facebook. Of course I had to see how it was made and if I needed to make it.  I made the first one from vinyl but it does not lay very flat.  So now I am going to make one from some heavy cotton and I'll see how that works.  I do like the X's and O's made from vinyl.  They are very easy to handle and use. 

Vinyl Bookmarks

On Sunday I was hunting for a strawberry key fob and found the cutest bookmarks in Buggalena Designs.  Surprisingly the designs were 75% off so they were only $1.00 each.  Into my basket went an elephant, an owl, and a pony.  They are simple to make with vinyl or felt and I think will be enjoyed by their new owners.  Happy Reading.

A Dyeing Day

 Wednesday was dyeing day for the monthly sewing group.  Diane has a nifty shed that is a good place to do messy work.  The big shirt I soaked in a soda ash solution, wrapped diagonally around a 4" plastic pipe, attached with rubber bands, scrunched together, and added dye in wide lines.  The small shirt I had completed before and thought it was colorless, so I redyed it after soaking it and tieing it up with rubber bands.

These two photos are from the same dyeing process.  We used gallon ice cream buckets, scrunched shirts into a layer, added soda ash solution to wet everything, and then poured on dye.  The top photo is the bottom layer.  The other t-shirts were other layers to fill the bucket.  Let the dye work into the fibers for 24-48 hours or more.  Then you are ready to see the results. It was a fantastic fun day!

Addition:  After rinsing two buckets of shirts and several single shirts that were each in a plastic bag, I have noticed that the bucket shirts absorb almost all of the dye.  There is very little color when I rinse those shirts.  The shirts we soaked quickly in soda ash solution and then gathered with rubber bands before adding the dye needed much rinsing because there was a lot of dye not absorbed. I find that interesting.