I volunteer at our local thrift store once a month and usually I have a little time while I’m working to check out new-to-me stuff. Sometimes it’s amazing what catches my eye. Is it chance or is there something else going on?
About a year ago, I bought a shirt at a thrift store. I love that shirt because it’s so colorful, comfortable and warm. Then in December while volunteering, there was another one. It was like the rack parted to show that shirt to me. For a minute I wondered if I had donated mine, since I often see stuff hanging that I had dropped off. After some thought, I grabbed it off the rack and bought it. Then last Friday I decided to wear one of those two thrift shop shirts to my volunteer gig and as I was straightening up the racks, there again was that shirt – just like the other two and again in my size. What’s the chance of that happening? I believe since it happened the chances were 100%!
The shop was having a 2 for 1 so after finding this shirt, I just looked casually through the shirts and found this one. It makes a great stencil and it looks like one of my favorite Hawaiian plants, Monstera.
I had found a shirt last year that was similar with a different pattern. Isn’t this lovely?
First I sprayed through it on the silk.
Then I painted it.
I see both of these shirt stencils used on some new shirts I’m going to dye once the weather warms up.
I dyed a couple more scarves with ties again. If you missed my tutorial, check it out here. I was really happy how these turned out. I am so drawn to the scarves dyed this way. I guess it looks African or Indian – lots of color and patterns. Be sure and check when buying ties. Usually the fabric content is on a tag on the small end of the tie. I thought I could tell silk from polyester, but while getting ready to dye I found two of my ties were poly!
I also wanted to see if reused ties would dye. On the left is the scarf dyed with new ties. On the right the scarf is dyed with the used ties. There is still dye left in the ties, but since the ties are so cheap, I’d just use them once. The colors are not as bright.
During this cold spell, Dave and I made some soap. On the left is Lavender Coconut Soap – a 100% coconut oil soap. We bought a bar in Hawaii this year and it’s got such a wonderful lather we thought we’d make us a batch. The other is one of our green clay soaps.
I also made some of my Shea Mango Body Whip for my dry skin. You can find the recipe here.
Well, that’s all for today’s recap. Hope you are keeping warm and having a creative day.
Lynda,
I have never used a piece of fabric as a stencil. Have you done this often? Is the fabric quite thin? Do you use paint or dye? If you’ ex posted about this before, let me know and I’ll search for it.
Do you think over dyeing the second tie might be viable?
Thanks for all the sharing you do.
Luann
Luann, I’ve used lace to overdye and also for sun printing so I decided to try this fabric. The fabric is like lace in that it’s thicker in spots where the design is. I’ve seen some lovely pieces where the shirt is dyed and then dye is sprayed through the lace. So I want to try that now that I got some nice fabric. I did buy lots of lace so I’ll be experimenting with that too when the weather turns. I’m not sure it’s great to stencil through (vs spray) but then I’ve not tried that. For the silk hankie I used dye-na-flow, but for my shirts I will use fiber reactive dyes. Do you mean over dyeing the second scarf? I could see over dyeing the second scarf. However, it still has a lot of color. For previously dyed scarves, it gives some texture, not so much color.
Lynda – I really love those thrift store shirts – love to search and use Goodwill stores. Haven’t seen any here however. What is the brand of the tshirt?
Sue, They are White Stag. The thrift store had probably 7 different ones I liked but were not in my size!! If they had been my size they would have come home with me for sure. They are fade resistant. It’s amazing how bright the colors are.
I love your blog! Your creations are always amazing and your observations and stories are fun and interesting. It’s my favorite blog!
PS…With all you do in terms of BBC
you still make time to volunteer, wonderful!
Joan, Thank you so much for your kind words. That means a lot coming from you!