Nacho's fabric fun!

[nachosmiley]

Hi all, I have been pretty much AWOL again as of late but there has been some reasons for this, most of which I won't bore you with but one of the reasons I AM going to bore you with....well hopefully not bore you
As some of you may know I'm a bit of a hand dyed fabric nut/stash hoarder/fabraholic and that got me thinking....maybe I should start dyeing my own.....which got me thinking....maybe I could set myself up doing this properly and possibly make some cash from something I love!
Soooo cue lots of research and scratching together a bit of cash for supplies and as of this week I have started dyeing! I'm not officially a business....yet. And I'm not offering anything for sale yet either, but what I would like is some feedback from you guys.

Here are my first attempts....I am trying to source a scanner atm so these have been taken with a camera both with and without flash....both are not right and the true colour is somewhere inbetween....all the pieces below are dyed on 32cnt murano, which dyes light....I will be trying out some jobelan and linen soon for a comparison as they take the dye better.



A pretty green the closest DMC colour is 955



A sky blue/grey combo DMC colours are close to 3752 and 415



Purple and blue....closest DMC shades are 3608 and the blue is somewhere in-between 800 and 809



A sultry bright pink and yellow....DMC shades are around 165 and 604



And finally a purple and green....closest DMC shades 164 and 3727

My aim is to create colourfast washable hand dyed fabrics...I'm going to stitch some white on the pink/yellow fabric and toss it in the washing machine to see if the dyes I have bought actually are colourfast first!!

What are your honest thoughts about the above fabrics....what do you like/not like? What kind of colours would you like to see? Would you buy them? Would the fabric being colourfast sway your decision to buy? Anyone have any name suggestions for the colours?

A lot of questions I know but I really do want your HONEST feedback be it good or bad.

Hopefully it will be fun to share this baby business journey with everyone...it may just be a pipe dream but you never know unless you try right?

[mechie]

Those are amazing! I think you've done a fantastic job! My favorites are the first two, but then again greens and blues are my colors. I would absolutely buy colorfast hand dyed fabrics. In fact, I was looking for some when I made my little dragon dice bag, but my LNS didn't have anything colorfast so I ended up using a solid. I don't have any suggestions for names or other colors to do, but I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Please keep us posted on your progress!

mechie

[speart]

OOOOH, love the bottom two! I'm curious--as I like to play around with natural, non-colorfast dyes on my own projects--what dye brand or process did you use? There is certainly a market for such fabric, especially if it comes in a variety of sizes.

[Arianwen]

ohhhhhh those are really nice! and i love the colour combos you have come up with. I'd definitely be interested in trying some of these when I get through my growing WIP and to be stitched pile! I have in the wings that are just waiting for the right hand dyed fabby so will keep an eye on how you get on!

[fccs]

I love all of them. Do you think you'll do other fabrics (jobelan, lugana, Belfast, cashel)? Keep us updated.

[karen4bells]

Beautiful!!!! Each of them is just amazing!!!! I'd also be interested if done on linen or lugana

[mauveme]

All are gorgeous, I would have projects for them all.

[nachosmiley]

Wow some lovely feedback already and all positive...thanks!

I will definitely be branching out into other fabrics....I managed to get a large piece of murano very cheap and I thought it would be ideal for test dyeing....I have however had a metre of 28cnt jobelan and cashel linen arrive a couple of days ago so they will be next!

I have just stitched a square of B5200 on the pink/yellow fabby and it is in the washing machine as we speak......pleeeeassse don't run

My next experiment will be reproducibility.......my best stitchy buddy has picked out the blue/purple one so my next task is to see how accurately I can reproduce the colour on another piece of murano....but while I'm at it I think I will throw a piece of jobelan and linen into the same dye bath too and see how they turn out.

As for the dyes/process I'm using.....I'm not ready to divulge that just yet (that part took a lot of research!) only that they are not natural dyes and there is a chemical fixative involved to (hopefully) ensure a colourfast fabric....don't worry though the fixative is not nasty and is classified as a low hazard chemical.

[Allyn]

You asked for honest opinions and I'll give you mine. I'm looking at this as if I were a potential customer looking at your wares.

The colors are really nice. I like them all for different reasons and each is suited for different projects. They're all lovely.

If a piece of fabric is the color/colors I want, I will still buy it if it isn't colorfast, but I need to know up front. If I find hand-dyed fabric in the color I want, I don't continue the search to see if I can get it colorfast. I buy what I like when I see it, because with hand-dyeds, I might not find those 'just right' colors again.

I won't buy a piece of fabric if I know it's been washed with laundry detergent -- even gentle ones like Woolite or Deft. For the sake of conservation, I use only a ph-neutral, cold-water soluble detergent. I'm rather a snob on this point, I know; but the vast majority of your customers won't care so you can weigh this part of my opinion as you see fit.

I rarely buy fabric in a size less than a fat quarter. If the vendor doesn't offer fat quarters, at least, I move on.

Now that I've given you my business-like 'honest opinion,' I'll give you my personal feelings. I'm really excited for you. This is so cool!

[Lori0]

All the colors are wonderful. I do not have a LNS anywhere near me. So I have never stitched or bought hand dyed fabric like this. I see others work on it and feel like I am missing out. When looking on line for pieces, I would shy away because of not knowing if it would run.The colorfast would be a must for me. And I prefer jobelan 28ct. So please post your results after testing it. I would be real interested in purchasing.

[carladee]

Love, love, love, especially the pink and yellow one, that is awesome!

[Fizzbw]

The purple and blue for me, but only just! Fantastic!!

I also usually buy fat quarters but I suspect the only way of knowing what size is best is to see what gets ordered!

I think you have a talent for this, your colour combos are really interesting as are the patterns, interesting (again) yet wouldn't overwhelm the cross stitch.

Best of luck with this, keep showing us the trials!

Nikixxx

[mags]

Oh I like the green and the blue ones. I personally have never considered buying hand dyed because they all seem to be non-colourfast non-washable - I would always want to wash my projects when finished. So it would be nice to see some colourfast fabrics available.

Good luck with your venture.

[Emmylou]

I'm not usually one for pink but I absolutely love the sultry bright pink and yellow fabric! Well done and good luck with this new venture

[nachosmiley]

Thanks for the feedback everyone I really do appreciate it

When I get going I will be offering a variety of sizes and fabric counts and I would obviously be open to custom cuts too (however I haven't devised a pricing strategy for those yet).

Anyhow my lovely hubby found a scanner at the tip shop today for the pricely sum of £7 so I've been scanning in my new colours But first here is the white square that I stitched and tossed in the washer.....



The fabric didn't run

Next the reproduction test.....the original murano piece is on the left....


Pretty good match....but the jobelan and linen I added to the same dye bath went a bit.....ahem bold!! Jobelan on the left.


Now I don't mind bold and it does have it's place but finding projects for fabrics like these can be a challenge so my next experiment was to make more subtle colours on these fabric types as I think they will be better sellers than the murano. I came up with four colours I like and a couple of rejects but hey....this is the research and development phase and is to be expected.

First up is Iris (jobelan) DMC 809/209


Rhubarb and Custard (jobelan) DMC 3689/746


Serpentine (Belfast linen) DMC 164/3849


And finally Firestorm (jobelan) DMC no exact match but somewhere between 350 and 351


All have scanned quite well except that Firestorm is more orange in IRL and rhubarb and custard is more subtle to the naked eye.....I will post DMC equivalents later as the light is not good right now and I don't want to judge colours in artificial light!

Thanks for looking and as always feedback both good and not so good is very welcome

[calico]

Wow! These are absolutely stunning! I love the pink with the white square!You definitely have the talent for it and will be successful! We can all say we knew you back when.....

[Kuschelschaf]

Great work! I love the iris fabric!!

[karen4bells]

More beauties and I love the linen ones a lot!!!

[jocellogirl]

They are just wonderful Sam. Good on you

[crosstitcher1]

My vote goes to Iris and Serpentine. I'm not a "bold" color person, more of a "pastel" person.
Good luck on your adventure.

HAPPY STITCHING IN STITCHING LAND.