Fabric and Threads, Threads and Fabric....

Like most of you, I'm always checking out places to buy supplies and find items for my art work. Many of us shop at the local quilt shop for our fabric, books and notions, and its necessary to support our nearby businesses! Often though, I find that I need odd items or large quantities of certain things so my searches often take me further afield.
I buy my PFD (prepared for dyeing) cotton from a local wholesaler, I am probably their most boring customer as its the ONLY item I order from them....plain white! But lots of it!
But I find my other fabrics in a variety of other places.! When I was in Florence last fall I found a flea market and bought three yards of the most luscious linen that you can imagine! The shop had a huge roll of it, I should have bought more but had run out of cash...... I want to make something extra special with that fabric, I just havent figured out what!
I often find wonderful linen  napkins and tablecloths at thrift stores. It doesnt matter to me if they are a little worn and usually the damask pattern shows up beautifully once they are dyed. I did find a whole set of linen placemats stamped with an embroidery pattern (but never worked) and they took dye and paint so nicely.
A student of mine found a wonderful linen in the drapery department of a discount fabric store and it was wonderful when dyed. And there are often interesting remnants in a very chique home decor store here in town.
I often order some silk and blends from a dye supplier in the US, the price is reasonable and sometimes there's good rates on shipping.

Threads are somethimes a little trickier to find. I used to buy crochet cotton at the thrift stores but I found once it was dyed, tiny fibres tended to to slough off of the threads. Although tatting thread is usually a better quality, but I generally don't work that fine!
Last week I found skeins of a cotton and linen blend of knitting yarn that will be beautiful when its dyed and also a skein of rayon and cotton chenille yarn that I know will be simply gorgeous! I'm looking into ordering larger quantities of skeined threads (its a lot of work putting the threads into skeins for dyeing) and always on the lookout for other supplies of both threads and fabrics.
Where do you like to shop for your supplies??

Five Easy Dyeing Tips That You Need to Know!

Often I hear from students that they would love to try dyeing fabric but they think its a long, involved, messy process. Sometimes they think they need very specialized equipment, noxious chemicals and a large space in which work.

In truth, a table or the top of a washer/dryer and easy access to water are the only necessities. I've been making luscious hand dyed fabrics for many years and tried just about every technique possible and the fact is, you can do a lot with very little!
Here are some tips to make your dyeing experience fun....and easy!

1. make a dye concentrate

Instead of making up a dye solution each and every time you want to colour some fabric, mix up your colours in easy, ready to pour concentrates. I mix 8 ounces of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon dye powder (double for lemon yellow and black) and keep them all in squeeze bottles, ready to go. They'll keep for 4-6 weeks, longer if you refrigerate them.

2. always have fabric prewashed and ready to dye

That's a no-brainer....buy it, wash it! Its that simple!

3.  dye threads and fabric together

If you are dyeing fabric, throw in a couple skeins of embroidery floss, some perle cotton or whatever! See how amazingly gorgeous it is??

4.  make colour gradations
If one yellow is beautiful, then think about how much better having twenty yellows could be!! Make more, make more! If you are not sure how, then check out my free video workshop here:
http://vimeo.com/89749580

        5.  ok, here's the last tip....................make a trip to the dollar store of most of your supplies!

You will probably need some measuring cups and spoons and maybe a water jug or two. Never use the stuff from your kitchen and the cheapest deals are as close as the dollar store. While you're there you might find some great items for stamping on fabric, some birthday cards and gift wrap, cute hair barrettes for the grand daughter,  new pots for the garden, socks for the neighbor, storage bins for the kitchen and.....well, you get the idea!

Have a good one!