Some dyeing, some gifts

It's never easy to document my rust experiments, because I wear gloves and am very careful about what and where I touch. That's why last week I


drug my supplies out to my porch and started the rusting process while the weather was still warm and sunny. I grabbed a pair of shorts I had outgrown, along with several very long strips of old bed sheets. Add to that my rusty people, back from their forced stay in storage, along with vinegar and some plastic bags, and that was all I needed for this project.


Actually, I had no idea how much initial fabric I had, so it was obvious I was going to need more than just my "peeps" for this project.


My "peeps" are taking this project to heart! Lots of wrapping later, the fabric and rusty pieces went into plastic bags, ready for the sun to provide the much needed help that was needed.


In the meantime, I found a bunch (or could this be a gaggle) of metal washers I was also anxious to rust. I used most of the vinegar and what I didn't use, I spilled in the plastic bag.

Now to play the waiting game.


While I was waiting, I received a gorgeous envelope


that was 100% Swiss.


Since I only know one person who lives in Switzerland, I knew it had to be from Margaret at Alice and Camilla.


Her note that she thought of me when she saw this, was absolutely PERFECT. And so was the lovely gift, an envelope with a rocking horse stamp, a rocking horse cancellation mark, and a rocking horse commemorating something I couldn't understand. I assure you, Margaret, I am in LOVE. This is going in my Rocking Horse altered book! It is awesome and I am more than grateful.


Before I could put my gifts from Margaret away, the box of Inspiration I won from Tammy at Inspiration Avenue arrived in my mailbox.


Look at all the goodies that were inside, too. Lots of art fodder I can play with. Thanks go to Tammy and the entire Inspiration Avenue team for this lovely box of inspiration.


After four days of allowing the fabric to sit in plastic grocery bags that reeked of vinegar, they were ready to be removed. I spent a lot of time washing the fabric in baking soda water. In fact, I ended up using an entire small box of baking soda. I hadn't realized how much rust the pieces had on them and how much of that rust migrated to the fabric. It was imperative to get all that excess rust removed and the fabric stabilized. And don't forget. Wear gloves all the way through this process. Rust has the potential to get into your blood steam if you handle anything rusty with no gloves on. After the fabric had been thoroughly stabilized, I washed and dried it like any normal fabric.


And finally, here are the contents of the cup. Some of these washers rusted better than others, but they all show some signs of rust. As soon as they were dry, I stopped the rusting process using a matte spray sealer. The fabric is some I placed under the leaking plastic grocery bags. They didn't leak a lot, but they leaked enough to cause a bit of dribble.

This was only part of what I did last week. I'll show more on Saturday. My blog posts tend to get long and involved, so that's why I'm breaking the week up a bit. Thanks to all for your visits to my blog. It is always wonderful to see you stop by and it thrills me when I read your warm comments.