Planet Textile Threads

August 30, 2021

Neki Rivera

benibana chronicles IV


guess this will be it. scared stiff to get it contaminated with the yellow  still in the pot.
this has been the most enjoyable dye experience ive had, the chemistry to it, the preparation the chronology of the steps to obtain red.


now i am in the phase of recouping the red that is still left in the bath.no mottainai here.
this will be discharged in an alkali bath and re acidified for silk dyeing.

ive been spending time on line researching for benibana suppliers in europe.
my usual to buy people are in the uk specifically england and the brexit has made things very complicated and terribly expensive.
the sponge bars i ordered finally arrived after 6 weeks and i had to pay 9€ for levies taxes or whatevers. if you take into consideration that the total cost including transport was 20€ it's really a no go from now on. (>人<)






neki desu 
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by noreply@blogger.com (neki desu) at August 30, 2021 08:00 AM

August 20, 2021

Neki Rivera

obon


honoring the ones gone in a festive mood. 
 august is almost gone! have a good weekend.












neki desu
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by noreply@blogger.com (neki desu) at August 20, 2021 08:00 AM

August 19, 2021

Neki Rivera

benibana chronicles III


 finally got to the red part. no matter how much you think you've rinsed the yellow there's still more to wash away.
 




some pretty yellow dyeing on silk



















but the soft red and peach are my pride and joy.







so is this other one kind of pink-red. all with a little help from my friend's notes.














i am enjoying the chemistry behind so much that i want to continue with benibana. still want to achieve reds. no wonder the japanese specialise in just one dyeas there's so much to learn. we occidentals are born dabblers (╯︵╰,) or i should speak for myself.
looking to buy a kg of benibana, so far it's either india or uk. anyone in europe ?? please??


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by noreply@blogger.com (neki desu) at August 19, 2021 08:00 AM

August 18, 2021

Sarah Ann Smith

Sundress on the Janome M7

Another new make on the Janome M7 using various stitches and features to make a great dress perfect! I found a link to a free blouse pattern on the Australian Peppermint Magazine on Spoonflower. Following the trail of cookie crumbs (or thread bits), I then found the Wide-Strap Maxi dress pattern, which is a free PDF download. They ask if you’d like to make a donation to support the cost of the site, so I did, and I GOT A THANK YOU! Nice! Click on the pattern name or here for the hotlink. Along the way I took pictures and the edited them into this under-3-minutes video:

There’s no audio for the first two minutes, but there are captions. At the end for the video of me out in the yard, you may want to turn up the sound…I increased the volume on the film clip, but it is still sorta quiet when I am turned around.

Here are some of the pictures from in the video!

The cotton lawn fabric is from Leslie Tucker Jenison’s Wildwood line for Robert Kaufman. I purchased mine on Etsy in late spring 2021. The dress has a facing on the front and wide straps (hence the name Wide-Strap Maxi Dress). I shortened the dress by 8 inches to a midi length. The only other change was to add interfacing to the facing since the cotton Lawn is so soft. If made in linen or a heavier weight cotton or tercel, would likely not need the interfacing.

From the back: there is a casing at the top, with wide elastic inside. You set the length so that it holds the dress snug against your back (NO wardrobe malfunctions!) but not tight (no “muffin top”!). The pattern suggest testing the placement of the straps. I agree. The gathers had a tendency to move, with the dress going flat in the center and the straps moving towards my underarms. Which led to the straps falling off my shoulders. So with the dress OFF, I move the straps toward the center and safety pinned them in place. This concentrates most of the gathers in the center, which makes it flattering from the front and solves the straps-falling-off issue. I will stitch a vertical line on the casing/elastic so I can remove the pins, but using pins first to get the straps where YOU want them is a good idea. I also now understand why some sundress patterns have the straps go really narrow and “V” in the center. This way, though, they easily cover bra straps.

Since I live in Maine and my 20s and 30s were long ago, I find that I feel rather bare, but I am getting used to the open back. I had thought even before making it that I would shorten the straps to be less bare, but discovered that would put the darts well above my bust and make the front fit poorly. If/when I make this again, I will cut extra at the top sides, shorten the straps, and then figure out a better-for-my-body placement of the darts.

Like many of the indie patterns now, the instructions are like a class in a bag–they certainly aren’t like the bare-bones info in the Butterick and Vogue patterns from the 70s, 80s and 90s that I grew up using. There are delightful instructions for using French seams which totally enclose the raw edges. Hint: be sure to trim the edges of any fraying threads before you sew the second part of the seam so that no “whiskers” pop out.

Having a selection of presser feet makes it SO MUCH EASIER to do beautiful work! I like my clothes as pretty on the inside as on the outside!

Thanks as always to Janome America for having me as a Janome Artisan since 2003!!!!!!!

by Sarah Ann Smith at August 18, 2021 07:04 PM

Neki Rivera

kissing my stash goodbye


slub cotton cardi finished and in its blocking stage.











now comes the boring part of piecing together.
if i had the wherewithal i'd buy a shima seiki that knits a whole sweater in one piece.it is an industrial state of the arts monster.  ⋋__⋌      
it won't happen in this lifetime and maybe even in the next one.





on with the next one in heavy linen yarn.
 stash busting going well,but still in the early stash yarns scenario.










blinded by ambition again. this might be problematic to knit. we shall see.








neki desu 
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by noreply@blogger.com (neki desu) at August 18, 2021 08:00 AM