Clarifying Folding Technique of Green Diamonds Wrap

In photos. 

The main folds are along the red dashed lines and the black lines are secondary folds created after the initial folds.  However, the whole thing was worked left to right so only a couple of the sections were being worked on at any one time.  The dashed lines represent mountain folds and the dotted represent valley folds (as in origami). 

folding diagram

first set of primary folds

filling in some secondary folds

pinching up some secondary folds

setting up next segment of primary folds

pinching up more secondaries

it stayed better with wet fabric than this dry run

working along to create the concentric secondary folds in a V shape

another segment done

from more directly above, more scrunched up

ridges marked out

This Got Lost in the Shuffle

Back in June, I dyed this wrap and then forgot to document it.  Green was the only thing that I was really set on beforehand, and so this was an awesome excuse to mix up a bunch of greens to play around with.  I like to mix colors in egg cartons (we buy Costco quantities) for small swatches.  I ended up mixing 4 different colors of green, but the effect of the tied resist was more than I was expecting, so they didn't show up the way I envisioned.  Which is probably for the best.  

First I washed in PTD on hot, then soaked in soda ash, while I mixed up the colors.  I ended up letting it soak overnight because things came up. 

Next morning, I took out the wrap and since it is so dry here and I wasn't sure how long it would take to fold, I didn't actually wring it out.  I probably should have, but didn't realise it would be ok even if it did dry out at this stage.  

I folded it lengthwise, trying to make it as evenly done as possible, which was hard because it was windy, and I pretty much always work outside.  I folded it in half the other way, too, so that all the fringe was at the one end.  I then arranged it so it would unfold from a neat little pile as I worked on my tie-dye fold from the opposite end. 

whew.  one (lengthwise) fold done, about a million to go.

To fold it, I basically made zigzags that went from edge to edge and then filled in the spaces with more concentric folds.  I practiced first on paper and used markers to show how the dye would go to make sure what I imagined would happen would actually happen.  My mind is spatial enough that usually it works out, but "measure twice, cut once", ya know?

folded

Once I folded it all up, which took something like an hour straight, I trussed that sucker up like a Thanksgiving turkey.  I didn't want it misbehaving while I was trying to dye.  But this step was sorta tough, maybe it would be better to have the strings laying out beforehand, or maybe that way it would have been hard to fold, I dunno.  Tying up around the fringe was something I should have thought of beforehand.

trussed

Next it was time for the fun part!  Application of the dye.  I wanted each diamond to contrast with the next diamond over, so I tried to plan the colors accordingly, only they got mixed up in the move from the porch mixing station to the shady tree dyeing station.  I think I should have used the baster, but I couldn't find it, and I think it was last used for fertilizer and I dunno whether that would be compatible with dye.  So I used the third or 4th best thing, baby Advil syringes.  These things are soooo small, but I thought it would be better for control than nothing.   The dye pattern I used was supposed to make light and darker versions of the dye form the stripes.  That part worked out fine, but maybe sticking with 2 colors rather than 4 would have been better.  You can see in one of these photos how on the top side of the fabric turkey I used light green and on the bottom, dark green.  So then for the next diamond over, I used dark on the top and light on the bottom, and alternated in that manner all down the wrap.  I should have been more careful with the drips and drops, but my time was running out.

left-handed at arm's reach mad dyeing skills

top and bottom color difference visible on front edge

Then you just let it sit for 24 hours.  Except I didn't have the patience--I think it sat until evening.  It was really hot (and dry), though, so I don't usually see a difference in vibrancy by waiting.  Here's my super-duper-high-tech system.  I just wanted any excess dye to really drain away, but at the same time wanted to keep it covered to keep from drying out too fast.

waiting

Here it is in the rinsing out stage.  This is where I felt like I should have used more dye, and massaged it in deeper, only I didn't because I didn't want it to turn to mush.  You can see the middle here, where I did the widthwise fold, and how that made one diamond out of two halves of folded diamonds.  The fold really affected how well the dye penetrated, so you can see a distinct line through the diamond which isn't as obvious with the others since they are more separated.  You can also see where I did the different pairs of greens.  I like the really light and really dark pair best. 

rinsing

And after it was fully washed and dried and a couple days of staring at it, I was a lot happier with it.  The places that rinsing made blatantly obvious were more muted.  The white balance was particularly hard to adjust on these photos, since the fabric was a natural color, not pure white, and it's no longer in my hands to compare. 

done!

 

Stripes Tie-Dyed Wrap

I bought a length of Osnaburg a little bit back mostly because I wanted to see if it was all it was hyped up to be as a wrap.  It was a little darker in its natural color than I had imagined, so the ideas I had rattling around in my head were laid aside for now.  I wanted to use the natural color as almost part of the design, or at least to shift the colors into a range that was not so glaringly bright.  So I decided on stripes.  Originally I thought about green, blue and orange, but on doing some test stripes, I actually wanted more warm colors than cool ones.

I folded the fabric accordion-style across the length of the wrap so that when I applied color it would create stripes that ran along the rails of the wrap.  Once I had gotten some more or less regular folds, I started tying.  I was intending to use twine, but when it came right down to it, rubberbands seemed easier, especially since I had done a soda ash presoak and was folding wet, so I had gloves on anyway.

folded

rubberbanded

Then I mixed up the dyes: burgundy, deep orange, chinese red, and a purple and a blue of my own composition.  The next step was incredibly time-consuming.  I applied the dye to the stripes between the rubberbands using a syringe.   I stuck the syringe into the folds to inject the dye into the tight spaces.   Once the dyes were applied to the top half of the folded wrap, I massaged in the dyes. Then turned it over and did that whole process again on the other side.  With a now screaming toddler.  Fun.  I turned on the hose for him, even though it's a little "chilly" today.  It took about an hour and a half to do all the folding and dyeing.  After covering in plastic and setting in the sun there's a bit of a break.

dye added

About 3 hours after I left it, I came back to add more dye into folds and do more massaging.   Things were looking pretty good and I had high hopes.

I ended up taking it all inside after the sun went behind the mountains, and I'm glad I did because we got the first rain in months overnight.   I put it in the garage since it's warm and babyproof.  Then in the morning, I moved on top of the dryer while I did laundry for some more warmth.  If I'd done this last week the temps would have been vastly different!  At 24 hours along, I decided it was as thoroughly done as it was gonna be, and it's not getting any warmer.  I also was starting to worry about the dyes creeping into each others' territory and turning too muddy.  So into the washer to rinse it went!  I considered setting it out in the rain, but decided that without constant checking it might bleed all over itself.  A few hot washes later and it looked like this:

warm stripes

It's So Hot You Could Fry a Crayon Out There!

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!