Printing/Stenciling Archives - Page 26 of 37 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Tie Dyeing using Procion Dye

March 17, 2010 by Ashley Hackshaw

Want vibrant color? Use Procion Dye. It’s what the pros use (and those of us that are pro “wannabes”). Look how yummy:

First, you’ll want to prepare a mixture of soda ash and water to soak your fabric in. I like to do this before I tie my fabric so the dye bleeds just a little….but you can also soak it after your fabric is tied. Here is what the soda ash looks like:

Basically you add 1 cup of soda ash per gallon of warm water. Make sure to wear gloves though…..this stuff can dry out and redden your hands (I know from experience).

Soak your fabric until wet and then wring out:

I like to use string to tie my fabric. I like the effect I end up with as the dye bleeds into the string:

Below is what the Procion Dyes look like. Measuring them is SUPER simple because they are coded with asterisks (*). You just mix 8 oz of warm water to the following amount of dye:
Colors with no * need 2 teaspoons of dye.
Colors with one * need 4 teaspoons of dye.
Colors with two * need 8 teaspoons of dye.

In this example, I was using Hot Pink (which had no * on the title) so I just added 2 teaspoons of dye……

…..into an 8oz squirt bottle using a little funnel I made from some plastic sheeting.

Then I added the 8oz of warm water and shook it to mix:

Apply the dye!

Wrap up the dyed fabric in plastic sheeting or a plastic bag to keep the dye and fabric wet. I let mine sit overnight for 24 hours.

The next day I remove the fabric from the bag and while still tied rinse off the excess dye using cold running water. Then I untie, rinse out again and put it through the wash on cold. I try to keep the dyes similar in the first wash to preserve color too (i.e. one load of pinks, one load of blues). They won’t fade after that!

Note: Dharma recommends the final wash with HOT water and Synthrapol or something similar so that the garment will never bleed on anything.

Note: There are many other variations and dye formulas you can use to perfect your technique. I recommend the Dharma Trading catalog which is more like a manual for dyeing!

Two recent custom dress orders I did using Procion:

A birthday dress with a screen printed “3” and a dyed skirt. The customer sent me the bling to applique on the skirt.

A veggie dress made with upcycled knits and tie dye.

Painted Wood Plaques – A Tutorial

March 1, 2010 by Ashley Hackshaw

My sister-in-law’s baby sprinkle was this weekend and I made her two painted plaques for her nursery, a LBB dress, and put everything in this great little bucket as my gift:

One wood plaque I made to hang on a wall or door:

…..and the other to hold hair clippies:

These are great little gifts to make on a budget! For each plaque I started out with an pre-cut wood piece from the craft store:

I sprayed the wood piece pink (the color that I wanted the lettering to be) and let it dry:

Next I used letter stickers (from the scrapbook section of the craft store) to spell my niece’s name “Cari”:

For perfect polka dots I used a hole punch to punch tiny vinyl circles from contact paper (adhesive shelf paper)…….

……..and placed the around the edge of the wood plaque. You could use any scrapbook punch shape as well…I wanted to keep it simple:

The stickers and vinyl dots become “reverse stencils”….

…..and I applied my top coat of white spray paint over them:

Once the top coat of spray paint was dry, I carefully peeled off the stickers and dots:

For the “clippie” plaque I took leftover fabric from the nursery rocker reupholstering (so it would match my niece’s nursery perfectly) and folded it in half tucking the ends under:

Then I top stitched around the edges of the fabric:

I attached some hanging hardware……

…..and used two tiny screws to attach the fabric piece to the back (I ran out of staples or I would have used my staple gun):

A finished personalized clippie holder….much better than the generic ribbon hanger I got free with all of my clippies!

For the second plaque I just drilled two holes at the top…….

…..and added wire ribbon to hang:

I signed the back of the plaques with “Aunt” Ashley:

Finally, I made an itty bitty Lil Blue Boo dress….

…..and added everything to a pink metal bucket:

Lil Princess Boo

February 5, 2010 by Ashley Hackshaw

Sienna’s 3rd birthday party was today. It was a little stressful for me….I’m not much of a party planner….so I put 99% of it together yesterday. A few of you emailed me a bunch of ideas and they were so amazing….I just didn’t have time to really put any of them together!

The theme was “princess” and Sienna wanted to be Cinderella. I looked everywhere for a cute Cinderella dress that wasn’t too itchy, but I don’t think they exist! I made this “Cinderella-inspired” dress instead out of soft cotton interlock….she loved it. I silk screened the three on the front and puffed the sleeves a little. It is a flamenco/ballgown/princess dress all in one!

Decorating is not my thing either (hello, I am the one that put up the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving in order to maximize the “days used” ratio). So thankful my dear friend Lisa lent me her birthday banner:

Extravagant outdoor decor:

I had the grocery store make cupcakes (I don’t bake).

I loved this recycling idea from Real Simple ….so I used leftover paint sample cards from a fairy mural project to make tags for the food.

I made party favors while watching Criminal Minds last night:

Mr. Lil Blue Boo and Boo went bright and early this morning to our friend Tara to have Boo’s hair brushed and curled (she won’t let us touch it).

Activities? I hired “Cinderella”:

My mother and my mother-in-law showing Sienna her face-paint:

Blowing out the candles:

This unbridled happiness makes it all worth it:

Here is one of my favorite photos from the day, taken by Lisa. It is my friend Jen’s baby girl Reese…she toddled around the whole time tangled in the balloons, but happy as a clam.

Another photo by Lisa.