Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: op-shop

  • Slow Stitching

    IP - Vest 1

    IP - Vest 2

    IP - Vest 3

    IP - Vest 4

    IP - Vest 5

    When I make something, I like to imagine the finished product. Spend time thinking about how it will look and dream up creative solutions for making it. I imagine myself using it, I imagine how it will feel in my hands and what it will look like. I imagine myself, dreamily sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, peacefully making while the girls play happily (the reality doesn't always match the dream of course!).

    But.  (There's always a but isn't there?) As I'm beginning to realise, there's only so much imagining and planing you can do. There comes a point where you just have to dive right in. I'm sure I've blogged about this before – clearly this is a lesson I keep coming back to!

    This beautiful eoc-dyed wool is slowly turning into a vest, with a little help from my friends. Thanks Kate for helping make the pattern and prove the seams. A crafty friend is worth her weight in gold I tell you!

    It took me ages to get the pattern just right. Then ages more just sitting looking at the wool, figuring out where to cut it to get the best effect. It was scary, putting scissors to fabric I had hand dyed. My efforts to create beautiful patterns made it so precious. Very different to buying fabric from the shop and cutting it up willy nilly.

    Now I'm on the home straight – deciding what colour embroidery thread to use for my hand stitching and whether or not to make it reversible.

    I'm gonna keep on going slowly. A stitch here and there, sit back and take it in and then maybe do some more. This is the part I love the most, the mindful sewing together of pieces to make a whole.

    What's your favourite part of the making process?

  • Slow Stitching

    IP - Vest 1

    IP - Vest 2

    IP - Vest 3

    IP - Vest 4

    IP - Vest 5

    When I make something, I like to imagine the finished product. Spend time thinking about how it will look and dream up creative solutions for making it. I imagine myself using it, I imagine how it will feel in my hands and what it will look like. I imagine myself, dreamily sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, peacefully making while the girls play happily (the reality doesn't always match the dream of course!).

    But.  (There's always a but isn't there?) As I'm beginning to realise, there's only so much imagining and planing you can do. There comes a point where you just have to dive right in. I'm sure I've blogged about this before – clearly this is a lesson I keep coming back to!

    This beautiful eoc-dyed wool is slowly turning into a vest, with a little help from my friends. Thanks Kate for helping make the pattern and prove the seams. A crafty friend is worth her weight in gold I tell you!

    It took me ages to get the pattern just right. Then ages more just sitting looking at the wool, figuring out where to cut it to get the best effect. It was scary, putting scissors to fabric I had hand dyed. My efforts to create beautiful patterns made it so precious. Very different to buying fabric from the shop and cutting it up willy nilly.

    Now I'm on the home straight – deciding what colour embroidery thread to use for my hand stitching and whether or not to make it reversible.

    I'm gonna keep on going slowly. A stitch here and there, sit back and take it in and then maybe do some more. This is the part I love the most, the mindful sewing together of pieces to make a whole.

    What's your favourite part of the making process?

  • Feeling Lucky

    IP - Lucky 4

    IP - Lucky 5

    IP - Lucky 6

    Can I brag, just a little? I am so in love with the gorgeous eco dyed patterns on this op shop wool blanket. I keep holding it and stroking it, marvelling in all the leaf prints and patterns. I can see a forest goddess face, branches of leaves and tracks in the earth.

    You know there are some days that are just lucky. The day I went op shopping in East Bentleigh was one of the lucky days. I was looking for white wool and silk to eco dye. And I found both! There were two silk dresses in one shop and two white blankets with blue stripes on the edges at another op-shop. I had just enough money to buy one of each plus a white long sleeved cotton top. For so long, white was not on my shopping list. Now I'm a mad eco-dyer and white is most definitely at the top of my list!

    IP - Lucky 1

    IP - Lucky 2

    IP - Lucky 3

    I trimmed off the blue stripes on the edges of the blanket and then cut it in half. I bundled one half with gum leaves (the incredible oranges are from the star of the eco-dyeing show – Eucalyptus cinerea), acacia pods and rusty bits of metal and then wrapped the whole shebang around a rusty old tin can. The whole lot was popped into a stainless steel pot and boiled for a good 5 hours. I didn't add any other leaves to the pot as I have done with most of my experiments so far – I was interested to see what would happen without the added colour in the dye bath.

    After it boiled and then sat in the pot for a few days I began to worry. The lovely old lady at the op shop who sold me the blanket was alarmed when I told her my plans. She learnt to wash clothes in a an old copper (I'd give me eye teeth for one of those to use outdoors over a big open fire!) in a country town and was told to never boil wool. I worried the wool would felt together. I worried there would be no prints (a recent adventure dyeing on a llama wool shawl yielded no leaf prints and little colour).

    IP - Lucky 7

    IP - Lucky 8

    My luck held – the blanket didn't felt together and gave me the most amazing leaf prints. It's my faith and trust blanket –  have faith in the process and trust the result will be exactly what you need.

     

  • Feeling Lucky

    IP - Lucky 4

    IP - Lucky 5

    IP - Lucky 6

    Can I brag, just a little? I am so in love with the gorgeous eco dyed patterns on this op shop wool blanket. I keep holding it and stroking it, marvelling in all the leaf prints and patterns. I can see a forest goddess face, branches of leaves and tracks in the earth.

    You know there are some days that are just lucky. The day I went op shopping in East Bentleigh was one of the lucky days. I was looking for white wool and silk to eco dye. And I found both! There were two silk dresses in one shop and two white blankets with blue stripes on the edges at another op-shop. I had just enough money to buy one of each plus a white long sleeved cotton top. For so long, white was not on my shopping list. Now I'm a mad eco-dyer and white is most definitely at the top of my list!

    IP - Lucky 1

    IP - Lucky 2

    IP - Lucky 3

    I trimmed off the blue stripes on the edges of the blanket and then cut it in half. I bundled one half with gum leaves (the incredible oranges are from the star of the eco-dyeing show – Eucalyptus cinerea), acacia pods and rusty bits of metal and then wrapped the whole shebang around a rusty old tin can. The whole lot was popped into a stainless steel pot and boiled for a good 5 hours. I didn't add any other leaves to the pot as I have done with most of my experiments so far – I was interested to see what would happen without the added colour in the dye bath.

    After it boiled and then sat in the pot for a few days I began to worry. The lovely old lady at the op shop who sold me the blanket was alarmed when I told her my plans. She learnt to wash clothes in a an old copper (I'd give me eye teeth for one of those to use outdoors over a big open fire!) in a country town and was told to never boil wool. I worried the wool would felt together. I worried there would be no prints (a recent adventure dyeing on a llama wool shawl yielded no leaf prints and little colour).

    IP - Lucky 7

    IP - Lucky 8

    My luck held – the blanket didn't felt together and gave me the most amazing leaf prints. It's my faith and trust blanket –  have faith in the process and trust the result will be exactly what you need.