Wednesday, June 6, 2012

summer traveling sewing kit...


welcome june and sitting by the pool, traveling in the car, and enjoying a cool summer evening.
what i need is a little traveling sewing kit to tuck in my purse at a moments notice.

it all started with this bag of horrible embroidery floss i bought at the thrift store for $3.99.
this mess was tucked in an old Bucilla embroidery kit. usually i would just pass on that nightmare
but there were a couple of vintage thread skeins in colors i just loved...
so i bought the bag and decided before i threw the 'uglies' away i would give them a second chance.
warning~ hideous before photo~


i had a bowl of coffee on the counter i was using to dye some fabric pieces so i experimented a bit.
a more concentrated coffee or tea will create a deeper color, a watered down mixture gives you just a hint of color.


i use gloves to protect my hands from the dye (bad experience in the past) they actually work really well. i wrapped the floss around my fingers and dipped it in the dye bath. after working the dye in the threads i squeezed out the extra liquid and blotted it with a paper towel.
to heat set the dye i placed the floss on a paper towel and microwaved it until it was dry.



check your samples every 20 seconds or so to avoid overcooking them. i really liked almost every color.

the rest of the awful thread mess i just threw in the dye, labels and all. i left that bunch a while to soak. i squeezed out the extra dye and placed in on the counter. the darker colors were mostly unchanged, a few were still so awful i just tossed them out. but surprisingly after i microwaved the rest i was thrilled! biggest surprises were the variegated threads, they will be so fun to sew with. ~after photo~

all wrapped up pretty and tucked in my traveling sewing kit.


here is one of the pieces i embroidered using a piece of linen for the base, vintage millinery stems, and dyed wool and cotton embroidery threads. a blossom passing fair.....




here we are with our graduate, love to her and happy june all,
julie collings

9 comments:

  1. love the post, the threads are so cool, they go perfectly in the sewing kit. I can't believe the colors you ended up with. Congrats on the graduate, I can still see her little face sitting in the high chair when we would come back from running.
    Happy art day.

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  2. What a cool idea Julie! Is that an Altoids tin or some neat-o vintage case for your kit? LOVE!
    Amanda

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  3. I can't wait to find another mish-mash of threads at a junk sale!!! Now I won't feel overwhelmed - because there's hope!

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  4. Leave it up to you Julie to re-claim and rescue a bunch of messed up threads and give them new life!

    I've never used a pair of gloves in dying things...great idea, I should of thought of that long ago.

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  5. julie i think you would have a good laugh if you saw the mess that my threads are... all crumpled and tangled in a plastic bag- quite sad actually. i love that you have your threads so neatly tucked in a little container with that sweet pin cushion and you tea stained them????? of course you did- you are amazing!

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  6. Julie, you remind me of one of my favorite children's books: "Something from Nothing." You always amaze me with your ability to pull a bunch of scraps together and make something lovely. You inspire me, dear friend.

    xoxo Rena

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  7. Never thought of dying colored thread. I am always picking up "uglies" to sort through at our local thrift shop. I will be trying this next time!

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