YIKES!! Discount Fabrics is one place I consider necessary any time I need to sew anything - and I mean anything. I haven't been for a while (been a good girl and used stuff from my stash), and I guess I'd better find time soon!
On dyeing with coffee/tea: I've never liked that pink tinge that tea gives, as Fran says. However, I'm very happy with my experience (only one) with using coffee to distress a costume -- and I know that's not what Fran is doing with her shirts. I just wanted to give you my experiences with dyeing with coffee. I made a costume skirt for a low-life character (my daughter) in October for our San Francisco Dickens Christmas Fair. Please note I'm not a professional; I just knew it looked too nice and tried to figure out a way to make it older. The fabric looked too nice for the character so once completed, I went over to my neighborhood Peet's coffee shop and begged a gallon-sized bag of their used grounds. I boiled it up at home in a huge pot and skimmed off the water over the better part of an hour, adding more water and grounds as needed. I finally ended up with lots of very dark colored liquid, not good enough for coffee but quite dark, and soaked the whole skirt in this distillation - on the back porch. After about 1/2 hour I lifted it out and hung it so only the hem of the skirt from the knee down was still in it. Half hour later I pulled it so only the very end of the hem was in the water, then an hour later I pulled it out completely and hung it to dry. Once dry, I splashed the rest of the liquid on the front and back from the knees down to add a bit more color, rubbed some potting soil into it, and let it dry once more. It looks stained and old. After that we distressed it with sandpaper and other things. I washed it after the run and, once dry, threw it on the bottom of the closet, where the shoes now live on top of it. I didn't notice any fading of the coffee stains we put into it after it was washed. I'll have to check again when we pull it out in October. At that point I'm going to use more sandpaper and bleach a couple of spots and use some shoe polish on other parts. My experience is not to say that the coffee won't wash out eventually. I only washed the skirt once, right before it went into storage. I wasn't brave enough to wash it with other things; it went into the machine alone. The stains will last two seasons at least; by that time she'll need a new skirt anyway. LynnD On 6/30/06, Lavolta Press <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
SNIP> I have, BTW, occasionally dyed white cotton lace by making coffee too strong to drink and soaking the lace in it in a bowl till it was about the right color. However, this was for things that won't be washed a lot. Tea produces a pinker brown than coffee, and I don't like that color as much. Quilters can get away with using it a lot because quilts don't usually get washed often. BTW, I went to the dentist in Berkeley a couple days ago, and the big Discount Fabrics there is having a moving sale. Signs all over. I didn't have time to go in, but I have to go back on Monday and maybe I can make it then. Fran Lavolta Press http://www.lavoltapress.com
_______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
