SewBaby News

   I got to wondering if I could tone down the neon pink in the dress from my last post if I dipped it in a black dye bath, so I gave it a try last night.  I knew that my fabric was synthetic, and probably wouldn't take a lot of dye, but if it had a hint of nylon in it, it would absorb something.  Here's what it looked like in the bath:  I used a standard RIT dye with vinegar and hot water.  Most of the dye washed out, and what I was left with was slightly more purple and less neon than the original.  It also changed the black and white houndstooth to black and grey.  My daughter saw it this morning, and absolutely loved it, so she's wearing it to work today.  It's hard to capture the neon-ness of the pink in the photos, but this is what it was before: I've used dye a few times now to make a garment more to my liking, and it's really fun.  It does take some time, as you've got to stir, stir, stir, and then rinse, rinse, rinse.  But, since I&

Some pattern companies identify their patterns by numbers, some give them names- often a female first name.  But Ottobre gives each design a a name that often describes the item, or the situation it will be worn in.   This design was called "An Ordinary Day".  This dress is anything but ordinary!  I would have called it "A Very Crazy Day".  Just what you need to wear when everything around you is chaotic.  Here's the line drawing from the issue- this is the Fall/Winter 2015 Ottobre Woman- available here .  In looking at this again, I didn't get it quite right!  My front center panel goes all of the way.  Darn it! Let's start from the beginning- the tracing.   This is basically the same design as another dress in this issue- #1- Twig.  I made Twig when I first got this issue here, and wanted to test the fit of it before I delved into the pieced version.  But while tracing Twig, I also traced the lines for the Ordinary Day pieces.  This is what m