Textile Treasure – Fabric & Lace

Another week, another day out wandering around in my favourite charity shops.  The beauty of it is I’m never quite sure what I’ll find. Half the fun comes when I rummage in a box and spot a vintage textile treasure.

Textile Treasure

This wooden bobbin from a weaver’s shuttle caught my eye.  It had nails in one end, to use for French knitting. It wasn’t until I came home, that I noticed it was marked Saltaire.  One of my favourite Mill buildings in the North of England.

Textile treasure - Saltaire Mill Bobbin and needle lace
This yard long piece of gorgeous needle lace was of particular interest. I’ll have my girlfriend check it out. She’s an archivist at Hatfield House.

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A New Philosophy – Playing with Dye.

The recent sunny weather provided the perfect opportunity to dye and dry in the garden.

I have a basket of scraps, garments and some unfinished stitchery projects that need a make-over. My solution is to over-dye them.

Ready to Dye?

All you need is a Dylon Procion Dye, 500 grams of salt and a washing machine. The whole process is very therapeutic. Here are the textiles before they were dyed.

My aim was to unify the pattern and textures into one colour palette.

shirt ready to over dye

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