I have had some fun with creative projects lately, including a surprisingly good ikat shawl, and a bedazzled bum bag.
The weaving turned out better than I expected, considering I only had a rigid heddle loom strung up in my lounge, without any fancy gear at all.
This is the loom threaded with the it dyed warp, and strung up to the burglar bars on the window in my lounge. The other end was tied to a chair upon which I placed a gallon jug of water to weigh it down so it wouldn’t move while I was weaving.
It didn’t look very promising while it was strung up, so I wasn’t expecting great results when I finished, but actually I am very pleased with the final product!
I used a white crochet-weight cotton thread and used cut-up plastic bag resist ties to make the chevron pattern, and dyed it using Rit Navy Blue fabric dye. If I were to repeat this project I would have used a different kind of resist ties, maybe a stronger plastic (this person successfully used cassette tape) because the plastic bags I cut up were not very strong and not only were they a pain to wrap and tie, they broke, and then probably melted in the dye bath. So I would have liked to have larger un-dyed areas but my supplies were a bit limited. I need to source a different material for the resists on my next attempt.
This project took me about 6 weeks to complete, but the caveat being that the lighting in my lounge is not very good and so I could really only work on it during daylight hours. Being close to the equator we have sunlight from about 6 am to 6 pm, and usually I don’t get home from work until about 5:30/6, so I was really only able to work on my weaving on the weekends, which is why it did take me so long.
Actually the lighting in my flat is so bad that I really can’t work on any craft projects after dark. I did do some work on my bumbag in the evenings but I also did a fair bit of work on it at the beach and while waiting for the Tuesday carnival parade to start! It’s nice to have a transportable project to work on when you’re on the go.
I bought this bum bag for 7 EC ($2.50 USD) at the cheap Chinese shop in Castries (S & S). This is the “before” picture.
And fabulously after!
Covered in beads and sequins!
I also tried to add a fringe that I made of the same crochet cotton I had for weaving, which I ombre dyed (the ends are slightly darker!).
However the cotton thread doesn’t make for a great fringe, it curls up and clumps up quite annoyingly. I am not sure how to solve this problem. I might try to plait some of the fringe, or I wonder if I could iron it or treat it somehow to stop it from twisting up together?
This project was inspired by the beautiful bum bags on sale at Beksie’s Boutique – http://www.beksiesboutique.com/home
I want them all!
Which brings me to the frustrations…
Sadly, my ginger beer is a total failure! It tastes disgusting!!!
However, it is perfectly carbonated and alcoholic! So I did at least 2 things right.
Any I will drink it despite its disgusting-ness, because not to would be alcohol abuse!
Cheers!/*gag*
