Row, row, row your boat...

And we continue rowing our DIY boat into the vast sea of sewing :P and most of the time we are just lying in the boat staring lazily into the sky and dreaming away... WASTING precious time! But we are in the boat none the less and we dream (which is the most important thing).

This is the second attempt trying to make a boat neck or bateau neck or Sabrina neckline. The fabric was bought from an exhibition in Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore. The neck embroidery is done using old silk threads. These deserve a post of their own!! The design stitches are the standard in-built ones for the sewing machine we have. This design almost caused a mental break down because the threads kept snapping every now and then (especially the wicked pink ^$@^&!). In spite of adjusting the thread tension this kept happening and we think that was because of the old threads. Lesson learnt: Use new threads!

The embroidery doesn't really stand out because the threads and the stitches are too fine and are lost in the patterned fabric. Lesson learnt: Coordinate design, threads and the pattern of fabric.

A better idea might be to make this dress in black with gold piping at the neck and a thick pink and red hand embroidery around it!!! Can't wait to make that one!!!!

But this kurta turned out better than the last one we made. Will post the pictures of the first boat neck dress tomorrow.

Trial and Error: Dyeing

I do not believe there is one perfect way to achieve nirvana. Everyone has a different path! What I am trying to explain here is that there might be many ways to do a particular thing. And below is my way of dyeing a fabric! :)

what u need: fabric dye, non iodized salt, hot water, stove, wooden stick or spatula, a large aluminium vessel, pre-washed fabric that you have to dye. (I have tried only with cotton so far.)

The dye I bought from Devi Stores came in powdered form and 20 gms of powder costs 20 rupees. This quantity is enough to dye about a meter or so of the cloth.

So you take about half a bucket of boiling water and dissolve the dye and some salt in it. No wet the pre-washed fabric in water and wring out the water. This helps the dye to penetrate the fiber better I guess. So you immerse the fabric into it. you need to keep stirring occasionally so that all parts of the fabric are evenly colored.


The shop keeper told me to boil fabric in this dye 30 mins. I bet the actual dye container will have proper instructions. Since I bought only 20 gms of the dye I didn't get the container. What I did was let the fabric soak for an hour and then boil it for 20 minutes. Then I let it cool and then washed it 2-3 times in clean water.

The intensity of the color will depend on the amount of dye you add and the duration of time you soak it/boil it.

Proudly Primary

I tend to get sucked into complexity. I tend to ignore what comes naturally. Somehow the primary colors never seem to be my initial choice! And this dress changed all that.

This is the first dress I embroidered for my daughter. And this was the first one she truly appreciated! I did not trace the design. It just grew. As you can guess this design draws a bit from Mexican embroidery. What I loved most about this dress is its vibrancy and simplicity. There is hardly anything complex. Its a simple dress in basic colors.

The polka dot cotton fabric is from a Jayanagar 4th Block, Bangalore shop.The red fabric is super thin cotton from my stash of leftover fabric. The threads are from Anchor.

The Undelivered Gift

The Khadi tea coasters were for someone who had been sending my kid gifts for a long time. This set of 6 coasters were embroidered and sewed late into the night. I believe they even made the journey to the city. But we never got any confirmation whether they were handed over to the person they were made for!

This Khadi fabric had a very strong texture and was slightly difficult to embroider. We used silk thread and the thread kept snapping every now and then. A layer of batting has been sandwiched between the two layers of  embroidered fabric.