The biggest cup of tea I ever made

[janestarz]

Never question inspiration. It seems to be my motto of late. It slaps me around and makes me do stuff I wouldn't even dare dream about!

For my Aon character's costume I'm trying to find a balance between Susan Sto Helit, Van Helsing, and Mark Darcy. Sounds impossible, right?
The only requirements for the costume are a long black coat and a hat. I haven't decided on the design for the coat yet, and I could swing either very Van Helsing or go completely Truly Victorian on my ass. I just don't know yet. As for the hat, I had one left over from Dolle Griet stock and decided to use that. It was a deep red, with pheasant feathers, a black ribbon, and one side stitched into place like a true musketeer.

Originally I wanted to go with a red-brown-black scheme, using a white blouse and red cravat, brown vest and pants with a black coat, but the only browns in my pile were an utterly unacceptable shit-colour. Instead, I dug up a white cotton sateen, blood-red poly taffeta, grey poly suede and two rolls of black cotton. The white sateen was very, very bling though. The sateen's shine is lovely but it made the white very angelic. I decided to tea dye it down to a more earthy off-white. The sterile white combined with grey and red would make it harsh, but a softer tone of white would make it a more warm combination. I hoped.

So off I went to make the biggest cup of tea I ever made. Some sixty to sixty-five liters of it, in a plastic tub in our bathroom.



The fabric was very hard to photograph already. I had four meters and cut it in two equal pieces, just in case the dye didn't match the test swatch I'd made earlier. One half was dyed, the other wasn't. I ironed the dyed patch this morning, and though this photograph doesn't do the warm tone justice, the result is really visible (although I'm not sure if it still will be once I wear it with the grey vest).


Top: original. Bottom: tea dyed.

The rest of the day was spent on the vest. I know the fake suede isn't fun to work with and it can ripple and distort once worn, so I chose to flatline it to some black cotton. Then I decided to quilt it, and that's all inspiration's fault! After basting the suede down like there's no tomorrow I started quilting it with dark red thread in 6 cm diamonds. After that was done I removed the basting and made the lighter red diamends in between. The quilting ruler of my sewing machine really works well, but it would probably have been better had I used my bobbin technique and drawn the lines on the black cotton on the inside. It's easier to mirror that way.


Quilted vest and buttons, in progress

Call me utterly crazy, but I will also quilt the facings (*moan*) and add a vest pocket or two just for show. *sigh* Luckily the back will be from the red taffeta, so that saves me a lot of quilting.
I hate inspiration...

Comments

[lenny (from livejournal.com)]

Wow, does dying with tea really work? Won't the color fade each time you wash your costume?

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

It does, but it does that with every off-white colour since most detergents contain a bit of bleach. I can always re-do the dye bath for the finished blouse, all I need is my trusty white tub and a box of Euroshopper tea.
I could use jasmine, but that would just be snobbish.

In any case, I think the colour might still be too light, but I have an extra box of tea to do a second bath if need be. It's the cheapest dye ever.
I do intend to add a bit of salt to help the colour 'take' better.

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

Tea contains tannin, which is a natural dye and mordant (dye-binder). It will fade a bit, but no more than other natural dyes. You can also use tea, oak bark, acorns etc. for tannin to make other natural dyes take better. It's one of the few things that will actually work on linen.

[margrietje.livejournal.com]

Heel gaaf.
Ik ben er zelf nog niet helemaal uit hoe ik mijn kostuum wil. Beetje Susan van Terry Pratchet, beetje Sherlockholmes.. of misschien juist wel heel vrouwelijk aangezien mijn hoed zo vrouwelijk is.
Ik heb diep respect voor je quilting, dat ziet er uit als enorm veel werk.
Oh en ik ga mijn haar denk ik verven voor Aon.

Groetjes Margriet

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Omdat jij richting Susan neigde, wilde ik juist tussen de mannen en Susan een beetje 'schipperen' qua kleding.
Ik ben erg benieuwd met welk moois jij komt!

[fyrane.livejournal.com]

I tried dying with coffee once, it worked too ;)
Anyhow, lovely work so far! I always admire the amount of work you put in a costume. So yeah, curious about the rest of the costume and your character for Aon!

[absintheskiss.livejournal.com]

Tea dying is lovely for taking the edge of over white fabrics. On my monitor it has gone a lovely winter white. If you want to do it again then go for it, but I like the softness of the current colour.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely warm white now, but I'll have to check it next to the grey and red to see what's left of that warmth. If I go too dark, it won't work either.