This week we have been preparing for Saturday’s workshop. As the workshop will be based on how to dye clothes, we planned to get white cloth which we would cut into squares. We decided to do square pieces because it would be more budget friendly. Participants can’t just bring their own clothes, because the cloth has to be prepared in a very specific way in order for the dye to take properly.
Therefore, on Tuesday I went thrifting for white clothes. We read online that natural dye does not work well on synthetic fibers so I specifically looked for something that is natural like cotton, wool, or linen. I eventually found two large white T-Shirts of 100% cotton. Before the fabric is dyed it must be prepared by washing it, then adding a mordent. It was my job to wash it. As it turns out, you cannot just wash the fabric like you would any other laundry. It must be scoured. This is a more intensive way of washing that aims to get a more thorough clean. Scouring involves boiling the fabric in soda ash and a pH balancing soap for about 1-3 hours. I will be honest, I am not sure what the soda ash and pH soap do for the process. I was very confused in my research, in fact, so confused that I did it wrong. I left out the soda ash.
So despite my efforts at boiling the t-shirts for a couple of hours, we had to re-scour them with the soda ash.
On Thursday we did our trial run for the workshop. We collected just over 500g of fresh buttercups for the dye, which took a surprisingly long time. We created tea bags with the flowers with cheese cloth and brewed the dye.
Tomorrow is the workshop, so today I went to Granville Island to pick up a donation from The Bread Affair. The owner took out two giant bags of bread from the freezer and helped me put them in my trunk. They were really heavy!!
Honestly I am a bit nervous for the workshop. I hope everything goes smoothly.
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