Eco Dyeing Normandy

On a recent trip to Normandy we did a little natural dyeing, Eco-Colour style with locally sourced fabric, water, rust and plant matter. Not having yet got my hands on India Flint's beautiful book, we just experimented with the little knowledge I have picked up from the very inspiring and rapidly growing fan base of this wonderful and exhilarating method.

Being in quite idyllic surroundings in a sleepy village surrounded by flax fields called Malleville-les-Grés in Normandy, we couldn't help but photograph our experiments. Here's the (little) method in our madness...

 A trip to the local beach to collect the sea water for mordanting the fabric...

Then a walk to our local brocante to find linen and silk for dyeing...

Very pleased with our linen haul and we even found a silk scarf, most pieces only one or two euros! We also found some beautiful rusted objects that would have been wonderful for making rust prints. We got a couple of pieces of iron to add to the dye pot.

Soaking the fabric in the sea water... 

We left these soaking overnight. We didn't have enough time to dry them before wrapping the bundles so I'm not sure how effective the sea water mordanting would have been.

The next day we collected our plant matter. 

One bundle included this old rusty chain and padlock and a few Hydrangea leaves and a bunch of Rumex tops...

With little helpers we laid out hydrangea flowers on the silk scarf. 

It might have been setting oneself up for disappointment to make this look so pretty at this stage!

Wrapping the bundles in the rain. 

...all tied up

A large bolster cushion cover made from fine linen was opened out and this became a bit of a test piece where we laid out various wind fall including cherry leaves, some kind of spurge, beech, rose, rumex, a fern etc

The silk bundle and the linen test bundle were boiled in the filtered sea water in an aluminium pot...

A beautiful copper tinderbox...

The rust bundles of linen and leaves were boiled in filtered sea water in an aluminium pot separately. That lovely copper kettle was too nice to use but it made a nice prop! 

After two hours on the stove they then went outside like this to rest overnight. The water in the pot with only plant matter turned a deep red and the iron pot went a murky black.

The next day...

I wish I kept this red dyebath. I wonder which leaves mostly contributed to make this colour?

Opening the test piece. Not many of our chosen leaves did much here or were perhaps given enough time to do much anyway. 

But the fern made a vibrant green print... but sadly that soon after faded away. 

An embroidered linen cloth that was bundled with a small rusty chain and some hydrangea leaves

This was another embroidered linen cloth that had a few sprigs of the rumex in as well as a very rusty iron chain, rings and padlock. It revealed some lovely colours and patterns...

Lastly the silk scarf and the pretty hydrangeas....

Suprisingly the hydrangea all left their mark in quite a lovely blue. The orange flowers (not sure what these are called) left a very vibrant yellow print. 

The red/orange was from the dyebath and you can see the resist of the rope ties. 

We left them drying in the apple orchard... 

We Make London Pop Up Shop

I'll be selling my wares at the We Make London Pop Up Shop in Hampstead from 2-9 July. It opens this Saturday. See my designer feature on the We Make London Blog.

Here is a sneak preview of some of my handmade goodies. 

Lots of lovely things for babies and toddlers mostly...

These are my popular baby & toddler pantaloons, based on a harem pant with a wide waistband and leg cuffs, this pair is made from some natural linen I found in a Norman brocante which was originally a curtain in a Paris hospital stamped 1843. It's beautifully soft with a heavy drape. I just love this fabric. Some of it was beautifully darned too, I'm adding this bit to my darning collection!

A variation on my pantaloons, these playsuits are adorable. They are so perfect for babies and toddlers because they do not restrict the movement and flexibility like many toddler trousers do so they can sit in that perfect lotus pose that only a child can do!

 Also for little ones my patchwork neckerchiefs are made from my scraps of vintage fabrics that I just can't throw away. They are a stylish way of catching the dribbles of a teething baby and reversible too.

There will be much more at the show, please come along!

Summer Hats Hand Stitched in American Smocking

Hooray for the sun! It's properly back after what feels like a very long winter. We've had some beautiful sunny weather here in London and I've been loving the chance to wear my summer hat again. I've just put a whole bunch of new hats on my etsy shop please take a look.

I have lovingly hand stitched these vintage style hats using fabrics from my collection, mostly vintage pieces I've picked up from various places. I just love American smocking and how it makes gingham fabric look almost woven by the way it pulls together every other square of the grid.

There is a great tutorial on American Smocking here. It looks complicated but actually you can really get into a rhythm with the stitching, so although it has to be done by hand your stitches seem to fly by. Traditionally you use the grid of the gingham fabric to guide you in your stitching but you can also use non check fabric and just draw on your grid.

I've just had some lovely photographer/fashion designer friends staying who took some fantastic photos of my hats.

Here is a link to the fabulous Finnish photographer who so beautifully photographed my hats being modelled, thank you Arsi and thank you to my good friend Jaana who made a most beautiful model!