Pages

Monday, 1 February 2016

Yellow everywhere

A few years ago I helped our local church minister with a community project to make some big banners to hang in the church at Christmas.  This time he has asked me to help with some similar banners for Easter.  The only problem is that Easter is very early this year, and I have had/will be having four weeks of holidays between Christmas and the end of February, rather reducing the time I have to prepare the banners.

So on Friday I ordered 35 metres of fabric from Whaleys (a very good supplier of ready to dye fabric here in the UK) and 450 g of dyes from Kemtex.  The fabric arrived at 7.50am on Saturday, the dyes at 11 am and I started dying the fabric on Sunday morning (I had a dinner and overnight stay on Saturday).

Thank you to Stuart at Kemtex who suggested I dye all 32 metres of yellow fabric in a wheely bin in one go - it worked.  And I finally found a use for the metre long wooden spoon our son gave me two years ago.

Now all I have to do is iron all the fabric and sew sleeves in the ends of each 4m long banner before I go to France tomorrow!  Oh, and finish dying the 3 metres of green.

At least I managed to remember to put in a 1/2 metre chunk of fabric into the yellow dye bath for our next challenge.
Posted by at

11 comments:

  1. Colleen1 February 2016 at 15:26

    Great story, Linda. Love the spoon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dianne Robinson1 February 2016 at 15:29

    Great photo! Did you have to wash all that or are you going to just let it dry? What a project!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Helena Scheffer1 February 2016 at 15:42

    Very impressive undertaking! Did you use a new wheelie bin or have to scrub out your existing one?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jinnie1 February 2016 at 15:43

    Good idea. Now I know what to do with our enormous wheely bins that we never even manage to quarter fill!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda B.1 February 2016 at 16:40

    And why would anyone want to buy you such a large wooden spoon ....?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1 February 2016 at 16:47

    Will you be privileged tingthe banners onto the fabric?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous1 February 2016 at 16:50

    Printing

    ReplyDelete
  8. Linda1 February 2016 at 19:18

    The banners go to the local groups who decorate them in accordance with the theme of each. This series is based on the I AM sayings, so there is 'Way, Truth, Life' 'Resurrection' etc. I trace the letters onto Steam a Seam and iron them onto fabric - green in this case - then hand them over to be cut out and ironed on where they wish. Unusually this time I am actually doing one of the banners completely, but all it is is all the I AM sayings on one banner, so more letter tracing and cutting out. It's up to the church to finish them and hang them. I have a good arrangement with the local vicar - I help with the banners, and he promises not to try and convert me (or suggest I go to church)!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Heather Dubreuil3 February 2016 at 02:12

    I hope you'll post some photos of the finished banners, Linda. A very impressive undertaking!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hilary22 February 2016 at 09:39

    So sorry, I am coming late to this posting. Good grief, Linda, that's a mammoth task and the wheelie bin looks perfect for the job. Love the spoon! Did you cut the 35metres of fabric up into banner sizes before putting them in the dye? Glad you remembered your own yellow piece. Don't envy you the washing! and ironing!!!!!!

    Yes please, can we see follow up photos later?

    Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda F27 February 2016 at 17:17

      The fabric was cut into 8 4m lengths before it went into the dye bath. The final 3m was dyed green the next day. After dyeing the pieces were washed four at a time in the washing machine, tumbled dried slightly (2 at a time), and then I spent hours ironing them!! A 2-1/2 inch hem top and bottom to allow battens to be added, then seven were given to the local vicar. I hope to finish the eighth one early next week, then I won't see them again until they are hanging in the church. I'll take some photos then.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)