Indigo Dye Dresses and fabric. First Results

As promised, here are the results of my first time trying to dye fabric with real indigo dye. First of all, let me tell you how it works. You get a kit, or you buy the dye and chemicals and a dye vat, which in my case is a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a lid. For someone who wanted to dye large pieces of fabric, I saw that a 5 gallon bucket isn't really big enough. A larger deeper container would be better, as you have to swish the fabric under the water for several minutes without letting it go to the bottom of the bucket. All the pieces I am showing here were actually dyed twice. the first time some spotting occurred, or I decided to try to get a darker color. It is amazing to see the fabric come out of the bucket green and then when it hits the air, it starts to turn blue. it gets bluer and bluer. I think the color depends on several factors. the type of fabric, the time left in the vat, and the amount of dye you put in. I posted several pieces of fabric to show how they fared. The flour sack fabric dyed lighter blue and a dark blue too, so there is a factor unknown to me how this occurred. The first dress is modeled by Miss Rag doll. Her dress and bonnet were white with black designs. The black designs can still be seen under the blue.  The second dress is modeled by our headless black honey child doll, who the dress was originally made for. Poor Honey Child's head is waiting to be worked on and repainted if I can find the right paint. This dress was a super faded out flour sack fabric, and that is why I dyed it. It is very pretty now, even without any designs at all. The dark plain blue is nice to me and rich looking. I haven't had time to investigate how to get designs in the fabric that the blue doesn't cover, but I think some kind of sizing is used. I can only imagine what the old factories used to be like. All those huge dye vats, and after a week the indigo vat starts to smell, as it is organic, but I think the vat will stay alive for atleast two weeks. I let mine die, because I couldn't really find more to dye right then. Not to worry though, I have another kit. HaHa Another concern is in a dress or piece of clothes that has lots of pleats, or a very full skirt, you have to be sure to get all of the cloth soaked under the water and try to seperate the folds some, otherwise parts of the folds might not get dyed. This caused me to dye the solid blue dress twice. Drat, running out of room again. Hope this helps any one wanting to try to dye fabric.

New Doll Molds, making pencil face rag dolls, and experimental hair styles

As I haven't yet learned to space my pictures and underline what they are about, folks will have to figure out what I am saying about different dolls here and what I am doing to them. Firstly, my new molds, I have made 4 new ones. They are not all pictured here as one is plain white and you would not be able to see much. I can't see much either at this point, until some paint is applied. Two of the dolls are of the same antique I tried to copy. The  one in the red is my favorite, but the other with dark hair is closer to a true likeness of the antique doll. The other Izannah girl mold whose hair is not painted and has no eyebrows and is incomplete in the painting is a doll that is very pretty and I believe will make a beautiful doll. I tried to copy another antique doll, but failed, and this doll is the result. If you notice the silk knit stockinet has deeper ridges and I made a serious mistake putting it on her. I thought I had the grain going up and down, but got it sideways. ( Never Never Never Never Ever do this. You will have to paint so many coats of paint to fill in the ridges, it's terrible and a stupid mistake I shouldn't have made. This doll would have been painted long ago if it hadn't been for my ( apparently not paying attention to what I was doing ). Alot of my time has been spent in trying to make a new rag doll with a smaller, older looking body and with a pencil face. These dolls will have body suits of a old faded material, and calico dresses, probably just alike, as sisters. These are my first attempt. I also added some slight color to the faces, but don't know if this was a mistake or not. I will make some more with out color and see if I like that better. These old dolls are all different and I think any way you fix them would be alright. Lastly, hair styles. I have once again changed my doll that I have had so much trouble with to a new hair style. I made short bangs. I see I need to darken my distressing, so it doesn't stand out as much, but I like this hair do. This doll will be dressed in a black calico suit. Well,  that is all for now. Thanks for visiting.