The New Capri Sun Bag

The Capri Sun (or Kool Aid) bags are so cute, but to be honest, the pouches are a pain in the *** to sew with! They are thick, slick, and don't ease at all like regular fabric does.

So I have been playing around for some time now, to develop a user friendly way to sew with these little guys, and I think I've got it! Here is the new version of my Capri Sun bag, using oil cloth as the top, handles and bottom. I like the oil cloth because it is easier to sew on, and I can make matching handles. It has the same bright and fun colors that the pouches come in, and it is waterproof and easy to wipe down with a damp cloth.


This size works great for a lunch bag or medium size purse. I am going to make some bigger ones with more pouches for a larger purse.

Hand Dyed Gradations

Wow, two posts in one day! I'm on a roll.
I have been busy dyeing fabric this summer, but haven't taken much time to post pictures. Here are a few of the gradation sets that I did. They are seven step gradations, with two "parent" colors, and the "children" are all of the shades that these two colors produce.


I used complimentary or almost complimentary colors for several of these sets, to get the interesting browns in between.


The weather is starting to cool off here, so I am hoping to get a little more dyeing in within the next week or two to last me through the winter! Then, I am planning on focusing more on quilting and other surface design like painting, stamping and silk screening.

I am offering these sets on my Etsy site if you are interested.

Rust Dyed Fabric

I love the look of rust dyed fabric, the earth tones, deep rusty color, and the visual texture of the fabric.

I had done a little rust dyeing about 2 years ago with some friends, and wanted to do more this summer, so I borrowed a big box of rusty things from my friend Donna, since I don't have the stuff laying around the house. I have done several batches on cotton dyer's cloth, and a few silk scarves (forgot to take pictures of those). I need to get back to making quilts, instead of just making the fabric, so I thought this would make an exciting quilt or two!

Here are some of my favorite pieces of fabric. Now, I will let them sit and "talk" to me for awhile, and see what I can come up with for a quilt design.

Hand Painted and Dyed Silk Hankies

Well, I have several projects that I've made but haven't blogged about. I've been really lazy with taking pictures and posting. But I had some time this afternoon while the kids were playing and the baby was napping (in the Snugli pouch of course!), so I edited a bunch of photos.

Here are a few silk hankies, about 12 x 12 inches, that I had dyed last year. I wanted to play around with adding paint to the silk scarves, so I decided to experiment on the smaller hankies.



The orange one was done with a foam stamp for the rectangles around the edge and a paintbrush for the other parts, using Lumiere paint. I love the Lumiere! My skill with a paintbrush leaves much to be desired though.



On the other hankies, I was using black acrylic paint in a syringe, trying to "draw" with it. But I had very little control over how much paint was coming out of the syringe. I had to move very quickly. I hate the brown one--I'll have to over paint/stamp something on it. But that's how you learn, right?



My DH has been keeping up with my blog--Hi Hubby!

What's Your Rainbow?

Apparently, mine is shades of Violet.

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.