Throwback Thursday

Hey everyone, I'm throwing back to this past Thanksgiving. I realized I never posted our table and our first shibori-ish project... probably because my mom and I were slightly bummed about the final result. Don't get me wrong, I love how our table looked, but our napkins and runners got a little washed out in the washing machine. Live and learn, right? Here's some more pictures though:

I had been dying (no pun intended) to try my hands at the Japanese dyeing technique of shibori. We didn't use the traditional indigo dye, but rather blue RIT dye. We found a great post on Honestly WTF that helped with the fabric folding and tying.

We dunked our fabric into a bucket of hot water and dye, and let them sit in it, stirring every so often, for about an hour.

Then we untied them, and rinsed them out in the sink.

Look at the lovely white that was retained!

We then washed them in the washing machine, and when we took them out we realized that the dye had spread to our beautiful white spots. It was so sad! We either didn't rinse the pieces enough in the sink first, or should have used a dye set with them in the wash, or should have let them completely dry before washing. Either way, it was a good learning experience, and it would be fun someday to try the real indigo dye!

I should also mention that my mom and sister did an amazing job sewing the napkins and table runners! They used a tutorial we found on Creative Bug for sewing mitered corners!

Overall, I loved how the table came out. I thought the orange pumpkins looked great against the blue, and the little pops of red candles and gold chargers really worked with the colors too.

Any of you have any RIT dye tips and tricks?!