The Lady Beekeeper

Well from the vacation pictures I posted in my last entry, you might be thinking, ‘boy she has gotten a little fat’. I know, right?! Must be all that sourdough bread and soup I’ve been making! Well as my husband has been reminding me, “its not fat, you’re pregnant”. But I can tell you when your pants and shirts all suddenly stop fitting, it sure feels like fat!

Oh right, so I glossed over that. I’m pregnant! Will and I are having a baby! That belly in the pictures is a baby! (Or really all my intestines pushed upwards by a baby as I have been reminding my husband.) Crazily I have two other friends who are due around the same time as I me – Oct/Nov. When my friend Maren and I were discussing our slightly protruding bellies she made the hilarious comment, “everyone probably just thinks its too many donuts”. How true! And then she followed it up with, “I wish I had a shirt that said, ‘not just donuts'”.  Wish granted!

Here is the super clever shirt Maren came up with, as interpreted by me. If you’d like to make your own, follow the instructions below.

Not just donuts…

1. Print out the MS Word document here.
2. Take your print out and tape it to your brown paper. Using your X-acto knife, cut out the letters and arrow. Make sure you cut out the inside portion of the ‘D’ and ‘O’s and save them.
   

   Cut out letters with an X-acto knife and save the insides.

3. Follow the instructions in my previous post to screen print the design onto your shirt.
4. Make sure when you get to step 14 you remember to also position the inside of the ‘D’ and ‘O’s you saved in step 8 in their proper positions.
   

   Position cut out onto shirt, make sure to add the inside of the “D” and “O”s.

Screen print following the instructions in my dyeing-to-screen-print post!

Finished shirt

Well I’m officially late to post this.  For the last several 6 days we have been traveling the southwestern national parks.  We saw the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Glen Canyon and Bryce Canyon.  All the canyons were beautiful and we got to go on some cool hikes, see some petroglyphs and ancient native American ruins.  So far so good!  I’ll give a better update in a few days.

Bryce Canyon (which technically isn’t a canyon) isn’t it gorgeous? It snowed one of the days we were there…

Just one of many pictures of the view from our hikes into/around the Grand Canyon.

Before we left I celebrated our friend Emma’s marriage to our friend Andrew via a bachelorette party.  It was a lot of fun.  To celebrate I made her some cookies (which are not PG-13 and thus won’t be on my blog, but just trust me they are hilarious.)  I also made her a sash with the words, “Future Mrs. Pitman”.  (That I can show on the blog.)  It was pretty quick!  If you have a die cutter it would be even easier, but I don’t, so it took me about an hour.

DIY Bride-to-Be Sash

• 5 feet of 3″ ribbon
• 10″x10″ Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl Sheet
• Exacto Knife

1. Fold ribbon in half.  You want the ribbon to sit on the bride’s right shoulder and hit the bride’s left hip. Stitch on the diagonal near the left hip.
   

   Fold ribbon, stitch on the diagonal.

2.  Type out your desired message (“Future Mrs. So-and-So”) in your desired word processing program in size 175 Edwardian Script ITC.
3. Print.
4. Tape your print out face down onto glitter vinyl sheet so it is facing backwards.
5. Using exacto knife trace around the message.  Press firmly, but you do not need to cut through the transfer sheet.
   

   Placing paper over the vinyl, trace with x-acto knife. Do not cut all the way through the backing.

6. Trim around each word and remove the glitter from the negative space areas.
   

   Remove glitter from negative spaces.

7. Place each word face down on the sash, spacing evenly.  The transfer paper should be on the top, and the words should be face up through the transfer paper.
   

   Position words right side up on ribbon.

8. Place parchment paper over the transfer paper.
   

   Place parchment paper over vinyl.

9. Using iron on the highest setting (320 degrees F), press for 10-15 seconds.
10. Gently peel and remove the transfer film while still hot.
    

    After ironing, peel and remove transfer paper while still hot.

    

    Finished sash!

    

    I sadly don’t have one of the bride wearing the sash, but here’s my lovely mannequin displaying the sash!

Well I made a lot of soup this week.  We had a ham earlier in the week so I made split pea soup and lentil soup (my favorite)!  Then I felt like making even more soup (I guess) and we had a shrimp coconut soup in the middle of the week.  Crazy.  Probably too much soup.  Oh and I started a sourdough starter! I’ve always wanted to try my hand at sourdough, but have never been brave enough.  Well I finally decided to mix up my own starter and try it!  I’m sure I’ll include that in a future post.

I have been making so much food I haven’t been doing much crafting or sewing.  I’ve been thinking a lot about both and have increased my list of things to do, but haven’t tackled anything on it.  That is since Joe’s birthday which I mentioned in my previous post.  By this point you either have no idea what Mario related character I went as, or you didn’t care to comment.  Either way I will tell you – I went as pink yoshi!  To my great dismay most people had not played either Yoshi’s Island or Yoshi’s Story which, I can tell you, are amazing games!  So this means most people had no idea that pink Yoshi even existed!  Instead I got “birdo” or “koopa“.  Next time I will have to just have to go as normal green Yoshi instead.

Anyway, if you want to make my Yoshi sweatshirt you just need to buy a zip up hoodie and a yard of additional material.  Within a few hours you’ll have an easy costume!  Not to mention Yoshi’s saddle makes for great lumbar support!

Yoshi Sweatshirt

• 1 zip up hoodie in your size
• ~1 yard white sweatshirt material
• ~1/2 yard red sweatshirt material
• ~1/8 yard orange sweatshirt material
• stuffing

1. First measure out the size for the belly of your yoshi sweatshirt.  This will depend on your size sweatshirt.  You’ll want to form a half-oval shape of white fabric starting at the seam just under the neck and truncating at the bottom hem.  Cut your fabric for each side of the belly by overlapping an inch beyond the zipper, leaving an inch at the top and bottom and leaving only 1/4″ seam allowance on the final edge.
   

   Measure belly for sweatshirt.

2. Remove the pockets if you have any then pin one belly side to the sweatshirt.
   

   Pin belly to sweatshirt.

3. Seam rip the zipper area to encompass the belly piece.  You will use the 1″ seam allowance you added to fold the white material over the original material and form the zipper casing.
4. Seam rip the seam at the bottom of the hoodie so you can tuck the belly fabric into this seam. Repeat for the seam attaching the body of the sweatshirt to the hood.
5. Switch your machine to zig-zag stitch and a medium stitch width.  Starting at the top where you seam ripped, fold the edge of the belly fabric under 1/4 inch and zig-zag stitch to the hoodie.  Continue along the entire outside seam of the belly until you get to the bottom seam that you ripped.
   

   Zig-zag stitch the belly to shirt, folding under 1/4″.

6. At the bottom seam, reconstruct the seam by pinning the bottom band to the sweatshirt edge, but this time sandwich in between the white fabric.  Pin and stitch using a straight stitch.
7. At the zipper seam, Pin the layer of original sweatshirt material and the white fabric to the zipper, right sides together as shown below.
   

   Pin zipper to belly fabric and original sweatshirt fabric.

8. Using a zipper foot stitch very close to the zipper teeth.
   

   Stitch close to the zipper teeth.

9. Fold under and then stitch on the right side of the fabric, catching both layers of sweatshirt material and the zipper again.
10. At the neck of the sweatshirt the creators did something fancy.  They used a piece of bias tape to finish the seam and cover the unfinished edge of the zipper above the top zipper stops.
11. Here you’ll want to pin and stitch the hood layer to the body sweatshirt layer, right sides together, sandwiching in the white piece.  On top of that you’ll want to lay your bias tape on this line, but don’t line up the bias tape with the edge of the other fabrics.  You’ll want to stitch along the opposite edge so you can fold it up to cover the seam.  Make sure you stitch the top of the zipper tape (just above the teeth) onto the bias tape as well.
    

    Stitch belly to neck seam and cover with bias tape. Trim.

12. Trim seam allowance to 1/4″. Fold the bias tape over seam allowance to cover it and tuck the end of the bias tape (the portion attached to the zipper tape) under. Stitch along the bottom edge through all layers (this will show on the outside of the fabric).
    

    Fold bias tape under at zipper tape. Stitch.

    

    View of stitching from the outside.

13. Next make the spines on Yoshi’s back.  Cut 6 horseshoe shaped pieces of red fabric.  (The size will again depend on your sweatshirt size.  Make sure to allow for 1/2″ seam allowance all around.
    

    Cut 6 horseshoe shapes for the spines.

14. Stitch around the curve of the horseshoe and clip curves.
    

    Stitch and clip curves.

15. Turn inside out and stuff.  You want them to be firm.
    

    Flip right side out and stuff.

16. Pin the spines to the hood, aligning them where you want them to go.
    

    Position spines on hood.

17. Seam rip the hood at the location for each spine.
    

    Seam rip the hood at the location for each spine.

18. Insert the spine into the seam you just seam ripped, right sides together.  Stitch.
    

    Insert spine into seam you ripped.  Stitch.

19. Mark the location for your saddle (the little turtle shell on Yoshi’s back).  It should be right above the bum on your lumbar spine (IMHO).
    

    Mark saddle location.

20. I made my saddle 10″ wide.  Cut a piece of red fabric the width of your circle, and a piece of white fabric 1/2″ larger than the width of your circle.  Cut a 4″ wide “x” in the center of your white circle.
    

    Cut circles for saddle.

21. Pin the white fabric to the back of the sweatshirt, tucking under 1/4″ seam all around.
    

    Pin white circle to sweatshirt, tuck under 1/4″

22. Using a zig-zag stitch as in step 5 stitch around the circle.
    

    Zig zag around the circle

23. Stuff the white circle with a small amount of stuffing through the “x”.  Pin to hold the filling in.  It should resemble a skinny donut shape.  Stitch along your pin line.
    

    Stuff the circle in a donut shape. Pin.

24. Take your red circle and fold it into quarters.  Mark the circle at the quarters.
25. Form a 1″ deep pleat on each quarter-mark.  (Note I think it would look a bit better if you used smaller pleats spread out across the whole circle, but I was in a rush.)
    

    Pin 1″ deep pleats at each quarter mark in shell.

26. Pin the red portion of the shell to the white donut, folding under 1/4″.  If your circle is too wide or too small, adjust the pleats as necessary to accommodate the circumference.
    

    Pin red circle to white, leaving a gap for stuffing.

27. Stitch very close to the perimeter, leaving a 2″ gap for stuffing.
28. Stuff.
    

    Stuff.

29. Stitch gap closed.

Wear with pride!  And correct people that you aren’t birdo!

This past weekend Will and I went to our friend Joe’s 30th birthday party.  His lovely girlfriend held the party at F1 Boston Indoor Go Kart racing and made the theme Mario Kart after Joe’s favorite game.  Guests were encouraged to dress up as characters from Mario Kart.  Since Joe was going as his favorite character Luigi (who is also Will’s favorite character) Will decided to go as Waluigi – Luigi’s evil nemesis.

His costume was pretty easy – just a pair of navy blue overalls, a purple shirt and a fake mustache.  Plus I decided to make Waluigi’s hat.  (I really can’t justify buying hats anymore, I’d lose my street cred at mad hatter.)  The hat was incredibly easy to make – hour start to finish including the pattern.  And as an added bonus it only cost me about $2 in materials.  The hat below is tailored to Will’s head size.  If you want to scale up or down, I have some tips for what I did below.  As a bonus, someone else who went as Waluigi with a purchased hat was remarking how similar the two hats were (I don’t think he knew I made Will’s).  I always consider that a bonus.

Oh and see if you can guess who I went as…

Tutorial pictures to be posted tomorrow…

Waluigi/Luigi/Mario/Wario Hat

What you’ll need:

• 1 yard cotton material
• 1.5″ strip of lightweight fusible interfacing
• a small 1’x1′ square of heavyweight interfacing – pellon 70 peltex
• brim pattern here

All specific dimensions in the instructions are for my husband’s head size of 24.25″.  

1. Measure head – add .75″ to the circumference for wiggle room. For Will this meant 25″.
2. Add an inch to your measurement in 1 and cut out a strip of lightweight fusible interfacing and cotton with that length x 1.5″ wide.  This will be your hat band.
3. Following the instructions on the interfacing fuse the interfacing strip to the hat band strip.
4. Divide the width in 1 by pi (3.14).  For Will this was 8″.  Use this length as the radius of the circle for your hat dome.  Using a protractor trace a circle of that radius onto your cotton material.  Cut.
5. Using the brim pattern above, cut out the brim from a piece of heavyweight interfacing.
6. Trace the brim onto the cotton material and cut 2 brims, 1/2″ wider than the width you traced, and an inch wider than where the brim connects to the hat.
7. Stitch the two pieces of cotton brim material together with 1/2″ seam allowance.
8. Trim seam to 1/4″.
9. Flip brim material right side out and insert the heavyweight interfacing into the pocket.
10. Starting at the seam, stitch 1/4″ from the seam along the entire rim of the brim.
11. Repeat 1/4″ from the previous seam 5 times (or until you get bored).
12. Fold the hat band in half, right sides together and stitch 1/2″ from the edge.
13.  Fold the circle in step 4 into quarters.  Mark the quarters.  Fold the band in quarters, mark the quarters.
14. Pin the band to the dome at quarter marks.
15. Pleat at each pin 3/4-1″.  Pin.
16. Pleat 2 pleats equally dispersed between each quarter mark.  Pin to band.
17. Take brim and insert in the center of the hat in between the band and the dome fabric.  This is a bit tricky.  You’ll need to curve the brim to contour to the band.  You want the edge of the band to be 1/2″ above the edge of the interfacing.
18. Stitch along the entire band.
19. Fold the large portion of the band up to meet the 1/2″ piece of hatband.  Stitch these together.  This will make the band sit right inside the hat.
20. Finally you can add an applique.  I chose to do this by taking a piece of scrap white fabric and fusing it to a piece of interfacing.  I then used a tight zigzag stitch to make an inverse  L and finally did a running stitch around the L.
21. Stitch applique to hat using a simple running stitch.

Will’s hamming it up…

This Saturday is Earth Day!  I recently read the book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and I’ve started to become increasingly more concerned for the Earth.  If you haven’t seen the xkcd on climate change I think it is a very nice visual of why people have to stop saying “we’ve had micro climate changes before”.  Now I’m of course just as guilty as everyone else of contributing to this terrifying spiral.  I use fossils fuels to heat and power my home and car and travel in airplanes several times a year.

Well, this Earth Day Will agreed we could join the GreenUp program through National Grid and pay a little bit extra for 100% renewable energy sources for our electricity!  I’m pretty excited about it.  It will cost us a few hundred dollars extra a year for our electricity costs, and I know that is just not a feasible cost for many to justify.  The idea is that with more GreenUp customers and green energy demand, the more our suppliers need to increase the green energy input into the grid.  I’m happy to pay the money now to drive up demand for green energy, hopefully eventually moving the grid to a renewable backbone.

I read this quote today (which seems to be a Native American Proverb, though sources are conflicted), “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”  Happy Earth Day!

This little craft below was insanely simple.  Grab some spoons from a thrift store and get to work!  I hope to have some better pictures this weekend when I plant some herbs!

DIY Recycled Spoon Plant Markers

• Spoons (I used stainless steel spoons)
• A vice or sledge hammer
• A set of metal stamping letters (mine were 3mm, but bigger would probably be better)
• A hammer
• Sharpie
• Paper towel

1. Take your spoon and flatten it.  I flattened mine by tightening the spoon in a vice, starting at the point of the spoon and moving down the head gradually.  You could also place the spoon face down on a workbench and hammering it with a sledge hammer until flat.  This was much more laborious (I tried it).
   

   Press spoon in vice, little by little.

2. Place your spoon right side up on your metal stamping pad. Position a letter onto the face of the spoon and hammer swiftly 3 or 4 times.
   

   Swiftly hammer metal stamp 3-4 times.

3. Repeat for the other letters and symbols.
4. When you are done lettering, take your sharpie and write all over each letter until the whole space is black.
   

   Cover stamped letter with sharpie.

5. Using the paper towel, rub firmly along where you inked.  The sharpie on the face of the spoon should come off but the sharpie in the indentation will remain.
   

   Rub away sharpie from face of spoon.

6. Repeat for the other letters and symbols.
7. Mark your garden!
   

   Finished spoon that will mark my basil plants!

A couple years ago I made 2 zafus for Will and I when I was outfitting my “meditation corner“.  I mentioned last time that I’ve been lugging one to work to use in my meditation group.  Unfortunately I really mean lugging.  They weight about 6 pounds each and are very unwieldy.  The first time I made the zafus I used this pattern.  This time I made my own variant which includes several improvements like an inner cover, a zipper, a handle and a smaller form factor.  The smaller pillow is perfect for me to carry around and only weighs a bit over 3 pounds.  If you want a wider cushion, widen the cushion and the inner cover.  If you want a taller cushion, widen the inner cover and add more buckwheat.

DIY Zafu with inner cover

What you need:

• 1/2 yard of 57″ fabric for the cover
• 1/2 yard of any width fabric for the lining.
• 24″ zipper matching the fabric for the cover
• 6″ zipper for the lining
• ~3 lbs of buckwheat hulls

Unless otherwise noted, seam allowance is 1/2″.

Zafu Cover

1. Cut your cover fabric into an 8″x57″ strip, a 10″ diameter circle and a 11″ diameter circle.
   

   Cut cover fabric.

2. Iron 14 1″ pleats into the strip of fabric, leaving 2″ between each pleat.  The easiest way to do this is to pin at the 2″ mark, fold fabric under and press along the 2″ mark.
   

   Fold under fabric at the 2″ mark.

3. Next take a ruler and move pleat depth out until it reaches 1″. Press again and pin.
   

   Pull fabric out under the pleat until it reaches a 1″ depth. Press.

4. Repeat for other 13 pleats.  You should have a 1″ tail remaining if you have done things correctly.
   

   Finished pleats. 14 in total.

   

5. Pin the two ends of the pleated strip together, right sides together.  Stitch 1/2″ from the edge.
   

   Pin ends of pleated strip together.

6. Baste along all the pleats, 1/2″ from the edge of the fabric.  Repeat for other side of pleats.  Remove pins.
   

   Baste along pleats.

7. Take the 11″ diameter circle and fold up 1″ along the edge and pin.
   

   Fold up edges of circle and pin.

8. Pin the pleated strip to the circle, right sides together, along the fold in your circle. Stitch. Only do this for 6″ of the strip.
   

   Stitch folded over edge of circle to edge of pleated strip, right sides together.

9. Take your 24″ zipper and pin it to the inside of the circle, overlapping the first and last 1/2″ of the zipper under the finished seam in 8.  Keep the fold along the middle of the teeth.
   

   Pin zipper to edge of folded over circle, keeping the zipper teeth centered on the fold.

10. Using a zipper foot, stitch very close to the zipper teeth without hitting them.  You may need to move the zipper down, stitch a few inches, then zip the zipper back up and continue stitching to stitch around the zipper pull.
    

    Stitch with a zipper foot close to the zipper teeth.

11. Zip the zipper and pin the other edge of the zipper to the right edge of the pleated strip.
    

    Pin other side of zipper to pleated strip. Stitch.

12. Repeat step 10 to stitch the other half of the zipper.
13. Unzip the zipper you just added, and pin the smaller 10″ circle to the other edge of the pleated strip, right sides together.
    

    Pin pleated strip to smaller circle and stitch around the whole thing.

14. Stitch.
15. Take a 4″x9″ strip of fabric and press in half the long ways.  Stitch 1/2″ from the edge.
    

    Stitch folded strip.

16. Turn right side out and press flat.
    

    Turn inside out and press flat.

17. Stitch 1/2″ from each edge of the tube.
    

    Stitch along both edges of strip.

18. Seam rip a 1.5″ gap in the seam of the zippered side, in the portion where there is no zipper.  Insert end of handle in this gap and stitch closed.
    

    Stitch handle into side seams.

19. Repeat for the non-zippered side, attempting to line the handle up with the pleats so it is even.

Lining

1. Next create the lining.  Cut 2 18″ circles of scrap material, and pin them together.
2. Mark a 5″ gap for your zipper and stitch around the entire perimeter, leaving the 5″ gap opened.
   

   Mark 1/2″ within each end of your zipper.

3. Stitch.
   

   Stitch from one mark to another.

4. Pin zipper to material, overlapping each end of the zipper with the seam by .5″ on each end.
   

   Pin on side of zipper to one side of material (right sides together). Overlap the zipper 1/2″ into the stitched material (past the mark you made in step 2 above).

5. Repeat step 10 and 11 above to  attach the zipper.  Make sure the zipper is right side facing in while you do this.
   

   Stitch other half of zipper.

6. Open out lining and stuff with buckwheat hulls. Zip closed.
   

   Insert buckwheat hulls into lining.

   

   Finished stuffed lining.

7. Insert lining into cover and zip cover closed.  Mush around the pillow until it sits right.
   

   Finished zafu.

Sit!

Sit mindfully.

Close up of the pillow while sitting.

Close up of the zafu handle.

So I finally started attending the group sits offered by the meditation club at my work.  I’d never meditated with anyone other than Will, so meditating in a room with 8-10 people was a bit different for me.  I quickly found that I really enjoy it, so I’ve been meditating once a week with the group.  The other fun thing about the group is that some of the members decided that they would try to make their own zafus!  (They are even using the same pattern I used!)  I brought my finished zafus in to use at work and show off.

Unfortunately lugging that big cushion back and forth is a bit of a pain.  It doesn’t have a handle so I have to carry it in a big bag, and it is rather large.  So I decided to make another improved pillow to use at work that is smaller, has a handle and an inner liner.  (I’ll show you the finished pillow next week and the exact specifications I used.)  Well of course I couldn’t just use fabric I had lying around – instead I decided to produce some shibori fabric from the bleached white linen that I got for Christmas!

Since I’ve already tried binding and folding in the past, I decided to try stitching this time.  I found an awesome shibori book, and decided to try out the Hanawa Squares Shibori which uses both stitching and binding.  If you want to try it yourself, follow the steps below!  If you want to learn more about dyeing – I recommend reading Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre!  Remember to always follow the safety recommendations of all chemicals and dyes.

Shibori Hanawa Squares

You’ll need:

• 1/2 yard of linen fabric
• Synthrapol fabric detergent
• Water erasable fabric marker
• Heavy cotton thread
• Needle
• Fiber reactive dye (~1 tsp)
• Soda Ash (~2Tbsp)
• Salt (~1 cup)
• A vessel for dying, gloves, and a stirring implement (to be used ONLY for dyeing)
• a seam ripper

Step I – Shibori

1. Wash your fabric in Synthrapol to remove any chemicals or oils.  This readies the cloth for dyeing.
   

   Wash fabric using Synthapol

2. I like to tumble dry in the dryer to pre-shrink my linen before I sew it.  Linen shrinks 10-15% so if you forget to do this and pop your newly made linen shirt in the dryer you will be extremely disappointed.
3. After the linen is dry I iron it completely flat by using the highest steam setting or spraying with water as I iron.
   

   Iron fabric flat.

4. For the Hanawa Squares I needed to split my fabric into divisions.  I divided my fabric lengthwise into 4 equal segments.  I ironed on the fold to make the distinction crisp.
   

   Divide fabric into folds, depending on your width.

5. Starting at the center fold I traced out a pattern of triangles equal size and equal distance apart using a water soluble fabric marker.
6. On the next fold I traced out another pattern of triangles interspersed between the triangles on the center fold.
7. I repeated this until all of my folds had triangular patterns along them, and the two lengthwise edges also had this pattern.  This meant I had 5 rows of triangles drawn out on the fabric.
   

   Mark triangles at folds.

8. Next I had to stitch every triangle by hand.  I used two pieces of thread doubled over to make it extra strong.
   

   Running stitching along lines you drew.

9. I stitched along the folds (stitching through 2 pieces of fabric) with the exception of the lengthwise ends where I only stitched through the single piece of fabric.
10. After stitching each triangle, I gathered the fabric with the 4 pieces of thread and tied and knotted the thread.
11. I repeated this for all the triangles I had traced.
    

    Picture after all the triangles have been gathered. It looks like a stalk of brussel sprouts!!

12. Next step was to bind each of the gathered triangles. Using a doubled piece of thread I wrapped on the outside of the gathered fabric very close to the gathered stitches.  I tied and knotted to secure the binding.
    

    Tie just above the place with you gathered, and then again, slightly above that.

13. I repeated the same procedure slightly above the first binding.
14. I repeated steps 12 and 13 for all the gathered triangles.
    

    Close up of double wrapped fabric.

15. Next it was time to dye.  As with my shibori tunic I used a fiber reactive dye with the linen fabric.  I chose PRO MX Fiber Reactive Dye from Pro Chemical in Raspberry.

Step II – Dyeing

For the meditation cushion I need 1/2 yard of 58″ linen.  After stitching it I weighed the fabric.  It weighed in at 6 oz.  If you have heavier fabric you’ll want to adjust the amount of dye and soda ash and salt.  If you can’t fit the dye in a 10 cup bucket you’ll want to increase the water.

1. Weigh your fabric (in oz).  Mine weighed in at 6 oz.  See note above if you have more/less fabric.
   

   Weight fabric when dry.

2. Fill a bucket with 10 cups of hot water.
   

   Add 10 cups hot water to vessel.

3. Calculate your dye required. I used 1 tsp of dye for 6oz (170g) of fabric.  This is approximately 1.5% OWG (on weight of goods).  For more or less fabric, the calculation is to do weight of fabric * .015.  The resulting number is the weight of dye to use.  For ease of use I generally assume a tsp is 2.5g.  If you need to be more accurate you should weigh your dye.
4. Paste out dye in a small amount of warm water and add to the dye bath.
   

   Paste out dye.

5. Calculate the salt to use.  For medium shades you should use 150% OWG or 1.5* weight of fabric.  For me this was slightly more than 3/4 cup.  (Salt weighs about 76g per 1/4 cup.)
6. Paste out the salt in a small amount of warm water and add to the dye bath.
   

   Paste out salt.

   

   Add salt to bath and stir.

7. Wet the fabric under the faucet then when completely soaked, add to the dye bath.
   

   Wet out fabric.

8. Stir for 10 minutes.
   

   Add damp fabric to dye bath. Stir for 10 minutes.

9. Calculate the amount of soda ash to use.  For medium shades use 10% OWG.  (.1*weight of fabric).  For me this was about 2 Tbsp.
10. Paste out the soda ash in small amount of warm water, remove fabric from the dye bath and add soda ash paste to dye bath.
    

    Paste out soda ash.

    

    Remove fabric from dye bath.

11. Return fabric to bath and stir periodically for 30 minutes.
    

    Add soda ash to dye bath then return fabric to bath. Dye for 30 minutes.

12. After 30 minutes remove the fabric from the bath and rinse under cold water until water runs clear.
    

    Remove fabric from bath rinse completely in cool water.

13. Remove ties and stitching using a seam ripper.
    

    Remove stitching and ties with a seam ripper.

    

    Look how cool this looks..

14. Hang the fabric to dry.
    

    Hang to dry!

15. Once completely dry, wash the fabric again in cold water, then warm.  Then throw in the washing machine and wash with Synthrapol to remove any lingering dye.

Your fabric should now be colorfast!  Use as desired!

Look at this beautiful shibori fabric!

Tune in next week to see how I used this beautiful fabric!