Feeling the Bamboo Love
During all of my reading, I kept hearing mamas talk about bamboo and how soft and wonderful it was. I couldn't help but think, I needed to get ahold of some and try it for myself!
I ran across some bamboo fleece being sold over on hyenacart, a fabulous work at home mom site, featuring loads of earth friendly products. You could look all day here and not get bored. So many talented women, all in one place!
I couldn't wait for it to get here and the day it did, I chickened out! Took it out of the box and it sat in the corner of my sewing studio for weeks! Shame on me!
Then one day, I told myself go get it wash it up and let's have a go at it! So my first step was washing the bamboo on hot and drying it, I did this 3 times for shrinkage. Then I thought I would try something that I had been wanting to do for a long time, shaving cream dying! Here is the link if you want to give it a go. I do mine a little differently with dylon dyes, but this is the way it is supposed to be done.
And one more tute that I am told is really great, that a fellow sewing mama did. I think this one is a little more well explained and visual.
I decided to sew my prefolds up first and then dye them. Here is a link that I came across explaining how to sew them.
Here is my first go at it. I used a blue and green with this one and then embellished it with one of my all time favorite prints, the original ooga-booga! And I couldn't resist adding a lap tee, they are just too easy to sew up!
For my next go at it, I decided to do something girly. At this point, we didn't know what we were expecting and EVERY dream that I had up to then, had shown a baby girl. Shows what dreams know!
For this one, I kind of did the reverse. I wanted a lot of pink, so I dyed the background shaving cream hot pink and then swirled white into it. Didn't come out exactly as planned, but I think it works.
I was having so much fun I decided to have another go at it. This time wanting to try 3 colors at once. As I walked into my sewing studio to stare at my fabrics, I remembered the pajama tops that I had purchased to cut up and sew with.
These are not just any pajama tops you see. They are some of my all time favorite prints used in the Munki Munki pj line by Heather Ross. She is absolutely fabulous and I would love to pick her brain. I just drool at every drawing that she does, such a brilliant artistic mind! All 3 of these are from collections long ago. You may be able to pick some up off of ebay, but they won't be cheap.
So the first one I chose was the doggy top. I love the orange, blue and brown together and couldn't wait to see how it turned out. It's definitely among my top 3!
And then my favorite print from her pj line, the Martians. Love the colors and I can't wait to see my little guy in this one! The green didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but I will just have to live with it.
And then the VW campers. This is such a cute print. I couldn't resist using different colored binding on the tee to bring out all of the great colors. This was my first one using 4 colors. I think the red and orange blended some, but it doesn't effect the cuteness factor!
Remember the "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" owl, a favorite of mine. Here he is saying "Lend a Hand" "Care for the Land". The colors didn't turn out as deeply as I would have hoped on this one, next time I would leave it sitting a little longer in the dyes.
And then a couple more girly ones. I love this one, skull fabric and hot pink and green swirls. I need to sew up a lap tee for this one and put it in my hyenacart store since we won't be needing pink!
And lastly Tinkerbell. I love this little fairy. Purple and green swirls, this one will be going into my shop too.
I really enjoyed making all of these. Each one turns out so unique, I felt like a kid in the candy store just waiting patiently to see how each would look after they were washed off! I see a lot more of these in my future.
I think for the next go around I will order some bamboo double sided loop terry and see how it dyes. I have heard that it is a great material for prefolds.
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