From Bedsheet to Morris Jacket

This Grainline Studios Morris Blazer had a previous life as a twin bedsheet that was made from a twill jacquard Egyptian cotton. Unfortunately the previous owner had a bleach accident and donated the sheet to St. Vinnie’s.  I found it in a bin for $.50 and was enamored by the quality and weight of the cotton and by the lovely jacquard design. Hence it came home with me. I removed the elastic and casing and it lived on my “to be dyed” pile for a while.  Here is the orphan sheet:

Snow dyeing: 
This winter when I was snow dyeing a few items, the sheet received it’s new life. Actually I snow dyed it twice as the first time it turned out too light for my taste, but the second time it came out beautifully. Here’s the link to the first dyeing and one more for the second dyeing.

The Dreaded Muslin:
Most often I don’t make a muslin but because this pattern is intended for stretch woven fabric I used a worn-thin bedsheet to make one and it was worth the effort. Based on this sample I made a narrow back adjustment, my usual sway back adjustment and added a French dart in the front along a fairly large wrinkle line. In the end I probably should have made a size larger as the dyed fabric had minimal “give” whereas the muslin was fairly lightweight and not very stable; a case of over-fitting. As mentioned in some patten reviews, I also scooped out the armhole about 1/2″. Last of all I lengthened the jacket 1.5 inches which is uncommon for me, a height-challenged person.

Jacket Construction: 
After the fairly easy jacket construction, I added 1/8″ of uncorded piping to the edge. The inside seams have a Hong Kong finish, made from the lining of a prom dress. Because of the weight of the fabric, I did not use a interfacing, which turned out fine for this jacket.

Pattern Description:
The Grainline Studios Morris Blazer is: “… a mixture of drape and structure, bracelet length sleeves, and a gentle shawl collar, it looks great dressed up or down. It sews up well in fabrics with stretch making it comfortable for everyday wear.”

In Summary: 
This was a really fun project. If you’ve never tried snow-dying or ice-dyeing, it’s really quite easy and fun as you’re always surprised by the outcome.  And it’s a great example of how you can find great fabric in a variety of ways.

Snow Dyeing: Take 2

In the last post I talked about dyeing rayon jersey.  The second part of that project was to dye an Egyptian cotton thrift store sheet in a greenish-grey color (pretty ugly). I picked it up at the thrift store for $.50.  It was newish but had bleach spots.  Despite this it had a lovely weave and thus seemed worthy of a new life so I kept it on my “to be dyed pile”.

On the first try at snow dyeing, the sheet turned out OK but it wasn’t transformed into a beautiful piece of fabric so I washed it and set it aside until it snowed again a few weeks later.  Below is a photo of the first try.

At any rate, I liked the blue but was less enamored with the greens and pink.  Of note, for this snow dye, the snow was very wet, thus saturating the fabric.  Not sure if that made a difference but seems worthy of a mention.

On the second try, I used two colors of navy and a deep purple.  The snow had just fallen and it was extremely light.  As with the first time, I covered the fabric with about 2″ of snow.  My thought is that the light fluffy snow didn’t saturate all of the fabric. It’s also important to note that for this second try I allowed the dye to stay on the fabric for 24 hours before rinsing it out.

As you can see below, it resulted in a floral-like pattern.  Not sure how this happened, but it surely is beautiful.

Now that the dyeing is complete, the next step is to think about what to do with the fabric.  Maybe just own it?