Heart T

This is another using bleach to achieve the design. I did all of these before the class to show the ladies what they could do even though they might not have access to fabric dye. Most of them live in mud huts, but every one has a bottle of bleach. Most of my projects for the class also were an example of what NOT to do or how to fix the problem when you did DO whatever that was. This shirt started out bright red. I stitched a heart design and then used rubber bands to bunch the bottom and shoulders into a loose circular pattern. Here, I didn't keep my thread pulled tight enough and you can see at the top right of the heart on the outside row, the points fade away because the bleach was allowed to reach those spots. Because your eye fills in the line, it is not a major problem, but I will definitely make sure not to let that happen again.

Bleach Icthus

This is another bleaching project. This shirt started out a medium blue with dark blue band around the neck. I stitched an icthus design through both layers on the chest and folded the bottom and sleeves in a traditional tie-dye pattern. After I could see that the fabric had lightened considerably, I carefully rinsed it and removed the basting threads. The fish came out with the pattern so vague that it was hard to distinguish what it was. I used a strong bleach solution to paint inside the lines to make it more distinct. This is a picture of the back of the shirt. The front looked the same before I painted it.

Ugly Skirt

My mom made this skirt for me out of the softest, drapiest linen rayon blend years ago. Of course back then, it was black! Hard to believe isn't it? After I wore it and wore it and wore it, the black was looking grey and faded. It was time to revitalize my favourite skirt.

I had wanted to try a reverse tie-dying technique where you use bleach to take color out instead of dye to add color to a garment. This was my first attempt. I painstakingly stitched a detailed design through the black fabric and dropped it into a bleach bath. I omitted one very important step. I forgot to thoroughly wet the skirt first and the fibers in the material acted like wicks and sucked the bleach right into every crease in my design. So when I cut the threads and spread the skirt out to admire my handiwork, there was no fabulous design! The entire skirt was a bright yellow except for a two inches around the hem where short black/brown stripes were left. I am sure that not wetting the fabric first was part of the problem, but I have also found on other bleaching projects that you must stop take the garment out of the bleach bath before it is all one color because for some reason, the bleach likes to migrate into the folds whether the fabric is wet or not. This will make more sense on another skirt that I show later.

So before the last dyeing session, this skirt was all yellow/orange except around the bottom and a faint line at the hip line. I restitched the circles and horizontal lines and tied the threads. I used a turquoise dye and ended up with this lovely green. When I first saw it after the final rinse, I thought it was hideous! I wasn't sure what I would do with it next, but didn't' think it was wearable without another overhaul. However, after I put it on, that ever soft, linen-rayon drape won me over quickly! And I realized deep down, I actually like green. The yellow green combo is still a little weird to me, but over all I still like the skirt. Someday I may dye it again and turn out another "interesting" color!

Blue Dress

This A-line linen dress started out a light blue that had faded over many washings. The dye I have on hand here was a dark purple, but the ended up looking like a dark blue or indigo color. I sketched the designs, using big stitches for the waves around the bottom.

Here's the detail around the neck opening with the mismatched buttons. For this part of the design I used medium sized stitches.

And here is the back where I used small stitches for the flower design.

Just like the shirt on the previous post, after the designs were stitched I pulled up the threads and tied them off keeping the fabric tightly bunched. The dye process I used didn't require much water and the whole dress was crumpled into the dye bath so I ended up with an all over mottled pattern. I am pleased with how this one came out. I can't say the same for some others that I will show you later!

Tie-Dye

I'm going to do a series of posts about tie-dying. I taught a class to the group of sewing ladies out in the village. They made shirts similar to this. I did not get any good pictures and unfortunately the dye did not take well on that project so the shirts did not come out as nice as this one. You can make a shirt this way too. Draw a design on the garment you want to decorate. A marker that disappears when wet is a good thing to use. Using strong thread, stitch a long basting stitch over the design. Pull the threads up tight and knot the ends to keep the fabric in a tight bunch. Then fold or tie the rest of the piece of you want more of the tradition tie-dye look around your design like in this shirt. All that's left to do is dye the shirt according to the instructions. Don't forget to wet the entire garment before dyeing or the dye will seep into your folds and creases and your design will be ruined.

Black and White

These ladies are waiting at the medical clinic in Santa Fe, a tiny village on the edge of the sea with no medical facility at all. No clinic, hospital, or pharmacy.

I like this picture even though it is slightly out of focus. The lighting is off too, but you don't know that unless I fess up to it as I just did.

Cinnamon Roll Trials

So, today Myra asked me if I had a recipe for cinnamon rolls. I don't have one with me so I told her I would look one up online. Then I thought I better try it out because I didn't' want to give her one that was no good. Better yet, I ought to make a double batch to have plenty to share with the workers. That was earlier today. It's 11:00pm now and I think I could live my whole life and never make cinnamon rolls again and be perfectly happy. I had forgotten what mixing up ten cups of flour yeast dough by hand does to a person's mental state. Then according to the recipe, I made a valiant attempt to knead it for ten minutes. Ten minutes is VERY long when one's wrist is already sore. I think I made it to about 8 and a half and decided surely that was long enough. The next part was my favorite...'Let dough rest for 10 minutes.' Aaaaah! My joy was short lived. There in the microwave sat the butter I had carefully melted. The butter that would give my cinnamon rolls their fabulous taste and texture. In the microwave. Still in the microwave, not resting within the dough, becoming one with other ingredients. Briefly, I thought about allowing the dough to become one with the leftover humus in the garbage can. I decided to just use the melted butter for brushing on the dough before sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar. Here I ran into another problem. I had enough ground cinnamon for less than one batch, never mind two. I tried to split it somewhat evenly, about half what the recipe called for. Then came the rolling up and slicing into chunks with a piece of dental floss. Now, that is handy trick that I had not tried before. (Maybe there is my silver lining?) So much for testing it out to let Myra see, this is what you get when you follow this recipe exactly. Instead I will have to say, this is what you get when you make the recipe a general guideline. Of course, they may be so awful no one will want to have them again. I do doubt that since anything with that much butter, whether in the right place or not, and sugar can't possibly linger around long enough to become stale. Thankfully my family isn't so picky and can devour just about anything I do manage to bake. I will get up early and set out the rolls to warm to room temp and then bake them. I'm afraid they will be dry since the dough itself is definitely low fat, actually no-fat. Maybe if I make some drizzly powdered sugar glaze, that will cover my multitude of mistakes.
I should finish washing the 9,000 dirty dishes that are stacked and piled on every flat surface in my make-shift kitchen. How can one project make SO much mess? I did wash about half of them, but I think the rest can wait until tomorrow. After all the cockroaches need to eat too and I am sure they are looking forward to a midnight snack. If the rolls come out nice, I will take a picture. I feel the need to document this event as mentioned earlier, it may be a once in a lifetime one.

Roatan

Hermit Crabs

Most of these fit on my fingernail. Click on the picture for a better look. The have the coolest orange and blue striped legs!

Petite Bouquet

To Touch or Not to Touch

Here in Honduras, Andrew's strawberry blond hair gets a lot of attention. Everyone wants to touch it much to his annoyance! In the past he has not responded cordially, but on this day, he just glanced up at this woman and said,"That's fine." He's come a long way from the days when a caress of his hair was answered with a slap to the face!

Girl and Dog

Behind a Gate

Samuel and Josue...both imprisoned by a different kind of bars...their physical and mental disabilities. Still such sweet little boys...

Sewing in the Village

Today, I went out to the village of Guadalupe and worked with a sewing group. I taught them how to make these wrap skirts. My Spanish is still pretty sad so we did a lot of pointing, but it seems we communicated just fine. I hope to share another project with them soon.

The ladies sew most days in this small one room building. There is no electricity. The bright sunshine streams in through big windows. They use treadle machines and do a fine job with them. They make many "bolsas", bags in all styles and sizes. The bags are sold at a local shop with other crafts from the villagers and native people elsewhere in Honduras.