A cheerful, slightly ridiculous little shirt to brighten the dark days...
Dharma Trading Co. offered to send me some of their new ice dyes (with no obligation to post), and I couldn't resist.
I've used a lot of Dharma Trading's Procion dyes for ice dyeing in the past, but these new colors were designed specifically to have dramatic "splits" when used for ice dyeing. Splitting is when the dye splits into its component colors as it travels over the ice.
They sent me Interstellar, Wild Thing and Dragon's Heart. Here I opted for Dragon's Heart, which splits into bright greens, yellows and blues.
I had the perfect fabric for dyeing in my possession already, a prepared for dye (PFD) Ventana Twill from Stash, a 7.9 oz. bottom weight cotton twill.
Stash doesn't have this particular fabric in stock any longer, but does have a 12-oz PFD stretch bull denim that would be beautiful ice-dyed.
In fact, check out the fabric listing to see some photos of the bull denim I ice dyed for Stash's Planned Parenthood fundraiser a few years back, as well as the absolutely stunning trench Leslie made from it.
I love how the fabric turned out! The split colors are so much fun and the PFD twill took the ice dye beautifully.
I love how the dye is more subtle in some spots, showing up as a sage and mint-y green, and super vibrant in others, with a bright, tropical turquoise, a deep teal blue, mixed with acid and olive greens. It's simultaneously bright and bold, but also earthy and forest-like.
I agonized a bit over what to sew with my dyed fabric, but in the end I opted for a pattern I'd made before, the Closet Core Jenna shirt pattern. I cut a size 1X, same as last time I made it. I fussy cut the fabric somewhat to have the brighter parts of the fabric closer to my face.
I cut and sewed up View A, the longer shirt with the deeply curved hem, but in this thicker fabric and this bold print it was... too much? Like last time, I was also unhappy with how the split curved hem meets at the side seam.
In the end I hacked the curved hem off, essentially making View B, the cropped shirt with the straight hem. I think this bulkier fabric looks good in the cropped silhouette! The proportions are better.
The only other change I made was to skip the tower plackets on the sleeve in favor of a continuous bound sleeve placket. I was worried the tower placket wouldn't work well in the heavier fabric. The bound placket worked great, though!
I had the perfect green buttons in my stash. My machine did give me a little bit of heartache when it came to the buttonholes, though.
I am pretty enamored with this shirt! It's a lot of look, but it's so much fun. I still get a little thrill when I both dye the fabric and sew the garment. Never gets old.
