Curb Furniture Upcycle: Part One

Driving home the other day, AB and I saw a really nice wooden chair at the curb of a nearby house.  Not being one to pass up awesome potential, he stopped and placed the chair in the back of the car.  We sometimes act in haste with our interest, but in turning over a new leaf of being proactive and not letting a project sit, I started in on the chair quickly.  The first step involved a trip to the hardware store to get some paint samples, the chair was already turquoise but it needed a bit of touch up.  Marcel and I spent a nice day on the front lawn repainting the chair.  

But then the real fun began! DYEing of the fibers--

Here are the quick steps for how I ombre dyed my cotton clothesline.

Spin the fiber a hank- without the fancy contraption, you could use your arms or the backs of chairs.

To prevent tangling while dyeing, make ties like this at both ends of the string.

Work on sliding the ends in a figure eight shape around the bulk of the fibers. 

Tie off and repeat at other end. Then remove the skein fibers off the winder.

Soak the skein in water, so that the fibers become saturated.

For cotton fibers, I use Rit Dye, I have a stainless steel container that is labeled as DYE ONLY.  You don't want to eat out the container you use to dye in.  

Mix water, Rit, vinegar and salt (I no longer measure, but you can follow the directions on the package.)  I use a pair of wooden chopsticks to mix and these stay with my dye container, again not to be used for food.  I do place this bowl on the stove on a low heat, for the first 15 minutes of the dye time.  This will help to make the color bolder. 

Allow the excess water to drain from your skein before placing into the dye bath.  I wanted to encourage some seep dyeing and so part of my skein stayed out of the bath, thus creating a bit of an ombre dye look.

Run the skein under water beginning with hot and running progressively colder until the water runs clear.  I then also heat set the dye by placing the skein in the dryer on a dry rack for 45 minutes.  I then allowed the skein to dry completely overnight before continuing to the weaving process.