Wednesday, May 11, 2011

the blue dress

This is the bounty from a day of goodwill-hunting.

It's a sleeveless, floor-length indigo dress . . . 

. . . home-sewn on what seems to be discharged linen or rayon or ? The cloth itself has a 4" pattern repeat woven into it, looks almost like it was embossed.

I wonder a lot of things about this piece -- what type of dye was used for the original indigo color, what tools were used to make the discharged design, a bleach pen or a brush and bleach? A template was obviously not used. Any fine lines you see are either the treatment or creases, not stitching. It's just so interesting that someone did this much discharging on the dress or discharged this much cloth to make the dress, I honestly haven't been able to figure that out. At first I thought it was treated first, but then look at the hem up there. Anyway, it's pretty cool.

But I didn't buy it to wear.


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18 comments:

  1. Deb LacativaMay 11, 2011 at 10:52 AM

    what a find...and I love the expression "goodwill-hunting".

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  2. deanna7treesMay 11, 2011 at 10:59 AM

    fabulous find. maybe it was done with a resist, like batik.

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  3. StoryclothMay 11, 2011 at 1:19 PM

    Wow what a FIND!!! Gilly

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  4. liniecatMay 11, 2011 at 2:19 PM

    You were meant to find that dress lol wonderful karma that lol
    Have you tried washign it to see if some of the dye is still in it?
    Ive got afew bits from charity shops, that still leached dye out and coloured afew odd bits of othjr fabric put in with it.

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  5. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    Deb, isn't it amazing what you can find at thrift stores? Thrifting is actually modern-day hunting, ha!

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  6. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 4:44 PM

    Deanna, you know, it very well could be batik -- I don't really have the background on dyeing to tell what's what! I hope to learn more about it.

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  7. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 4:45 PM

    Hi Gilly -- thanks!

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  8. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 4:48 PM

    Lyn, what a great idea to put other cloth in the washer with pieces like this. Of course, I didn't though. Darn it! But, you'll be happy to know that I put a square of white cotton in with some indigo-colored linens also found at goodwill, in the washing machine right this very minute. Fingers crossed!

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  9. JeannieMay 11, 2011 at 5:49 PM

    What a wonderful find! It does look like it was resist dyed with wax. Regardless, it is beautiful fabric.

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  10. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 6:58 PM

    Thanks, Jeannie -- I'm glad to get an idea of how it was dyed. I think I like it better cut up into squares than as a dress!

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  11. Deb GMay 11, 2011 at 7:15 PM

    Oh lucky you!

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  12. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 9:21 PM

    Deb, well I guess a person gets lucky sometimes!

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  13. SuzannaMay 11, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    Oh, it's beautiful...

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  14. PeggyMay 11, 2011 at 10:04 PM

    Thank you, Suzanna!

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  15. Judy MartinMay 15, 2011 at 1:30 PM

    Congratulations on your good-will hunting success.

    I am inspired by your blog.

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  16. PeggyMay 15, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    Thank you, Judy! There's a lot of cloth in this one dress and it's encouraging to find something that's both cool and useful.

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  17. UnknownMay 16, 2011 at 7:22 PM

    This fabric looks very much like West African indigo tie dye, or sometimes they use a paste resist. It's often done on cotton damask or jacquard, which would be the 'embossed' effect. It's very beautiful. You can see other examples here: http://fuggijaay.com/
    and here: http://www.anansevillage.com/home/ana/page_530_59/guinea_indigo_11.html
    and here:
    http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_africanart_textl8.html

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  18. PeggyMay 17, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    Carolyn! This is exactly what it is -- thank you, thank you. Oh my, I may love it even more now that I know what it is. I am absolutely amazed and almost speechless . . .

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