hand dyed embroidery floss tutorial...

i am finally finished with school, my daughter is graduated, and summer has arrived.
welcome june and sitting by the pool, traveling in the car, and enjoying a cool summer evening. what i need is a little traveling sewing kit to tuck in my purse at a moments notice. it all started with this bag of horrible embroidery floss i bought at the thrift store for $3.99. this mess was tucked in an old Bucilla embroidery kit. usually i would just pass on that nightmare but there were a couple of vintage thread skeins in colors i just loved... so i bought the bag and decided before i threw the 'uglies' away i would give them a second chance. warning~ hideous before photo~

i had a bowl of coffee on the counter i was using to dye some fabric pieces so i experimented a bit. a more concentrated coffee or tea will create a deeper color, a watered down mixture gives you just a hint of color.

i use gloves to protect my hands from the dye (bad experience in the past) they actually work really well. i wrapped the floss around my fingers and dipped it in the dye bath. after working the dye in the threads i squeezed out the extra liquid and blotted it with a paper towel. to heat set the dye i placed the floss on a paper towel and microwaved it until it was dry.

check your samples every 20 seconds or so to avoid overcooking them. i really liked almost every color.

the rest of the awful thread mess i just threw in the dye, labels and all. i left that bunch a while to soak. i squeezed out the extra dye and placed in on the counter. the darker colors were mostly unchanged, a few were still so awful i just tossed them out. but surprisingly after i microwaved the rest i was thrilled! biggest surprises were the variegated threads, they will be so fun to sew with. ~after photo~
 all wrapped up pretty and tucked in my traveling sewing kit.


here is one of the pieces i embroidered using a piece of linen for the base, vintage millinery stems, and dyed wool and cotton embroidery threads. a blossom passing fair....
  here we are with our graduate, love to her and happy june all, julie