hand-dyed fabrics

machine stitch resist

30" x 42"




Below is a slightly more elaborate design, but again done by accordion-folding the fabric (which was mint-green to begin with), drawing a curvy pattern on the bundle, and machine stitching through the whole thing.  The lines of stitching stay the original color, although a bit of dye comes through each needle hole, making a very lovely and interesting effect
.



raspberry diamond stitch resist

On the left is a simple machine-stitch resist. After forming accordion folds, I machine sewed a very simple zigzag down the length of the folded fabric. I don't mark the zigzag on the fabric; I do it free-hand so it will be somewhat irregular. 








In the picture below, I show another stich resist as I'm in the process of taking out the stiching. You can see the packet that I've sewn, and just a little bit of the cloth that's inside. The entire cloth is nearly 2 yards!


A note about the outside of the packet: after many attempts at this sort of cloth, I finally discovered a way to avoid having some folds of the accordion-package take up much less dye than other parts. The secret is Tyvec (the stuff the postal service makes Priority Mail envelopes of); if I put strips of Tyveck on the outside of my accordion, the dye only penetrates through the stitches, and at the sides of the packet. The dots of the stitching become much more prominent, and the whole cloth is pretty much evenly dyed.



And below is a simpler stitch resist, though very pleasing.

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