Colouring the underworld for babies

With so many babies being born in Australia’s baby boom I’ve taken to jazzing up singlets so the little ones feel connected to the textile world from the get go.

I used to buy the pale coloured singlets and do bullion roses on them. This looked great but the roses are a bit lumpy for their little chests. Also who wants insipid colours on a child when you can have your own shades of tie dye flocked with simple flower embroidery or applique. I was disappointed that some of the neck bands, from the same packet of singlets, didn’t dye with my cellulose fibre reactives as they must be polyester. Don’t you think the manufacturer would warn us of such horrors! Perhaps if weavers ran the world this would attract a major fine or even a jail sentence with the Textile and Weave Protection Board!

These photos are especially for Alex – the mum to be –  so she can see how to make them. I just concertina folded (or pleated) the singlet then wrapped string around them very tightly. In another lot I used clothes pegs to do the resist rather than string. You can see this effect in the two purple singlets above.

4 thoughts on “Colouring the underworld for babies

  • April 17, 2010 at 9:54 pm
    Permalink

    They are wonderfully fun! The cow is downright adorable.

  • April 18, 2010 at 7:45 am
    Permalink

    I didn’t know there was a baby boom in Oz! I love the colors of the one in the middle. This is a great idea. I wonder if I could do something similar, and capture them from the get go, as you say.

    Weavers running the world… That’ll be wonderful, but it might not leave much time for weaving. 🙁

  • April 19, 2010 at 10:34 am
    Permalink

    wow Kaz these are great and I am totally inspired to try this now. So good to see them in the prep stage too.

    …I’m thinking tie dye singlet with a big peace symbol! I can feel a workshop coming on!

    Arabella is always on about a team building day… something like this would be fun…

  • April 19, 2010 at 8:13 pm
    Permalink

    Wow Kaz – you really are very clever and very innovative with all your textile/texture ideas! I agree with Alex…..An excellent idea for a team building day! So when will we do this? 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *