Moo Mania and More: Recycle Something (onion skin dyeing experiment)

This fortnight the theme at Moo Mania and More is Recycle.  Many of you know the word "recycle" could be my middle name.  So for this first entry (and I plan to have lots of entries this time) I've been playing with strips of old fabric (bed sheets to be specific), dyeing them to use in future projects.  Since the heat has been on (literally) this past week, it was time to use it to my advantage.  Although I had no prior knowledge of the theme of this challenge, I felt it was a good example of what you can do to color your own fabric for art projects.

I began with two bowls of onion skins I had heated and "cooked" in my basement studio microwave.  Be aware these bowls are NOT to be used in my kitchen, even though I used a food product.  It just makes sense to keep art equipment separate from food equipment.

After I made the "dye" (I cooked the skins from approximately 16 onions for four minutes in microwave, then strained the skins out and removed them to my compost pile), I added my bed sheets to the "dye." 

The strips of sheets that were a polyester/cotton blend, took the dye much better and faster.

I had some onion skin dye left over, so I added some book pages

and allowed them to soak for awhile.

Once dry, I liked the 100% cotton sheets better (in the back part of photo), because they were mottled, and I much prefer a mottled look to the rather bland beige of the cotton/poly blend.

But this was Moo-Mania and More, so I had to at least show the possibilities that were possible using the theme "recycle something."

I tore a piece of the onion dyed fabric and sewed two pieces of a deconstructed man's tie, along with some lace I dyed in some of this morning's coffee.  I liked the back of the tie as well as the front, so cut a piece of it for the top.

This piece is not finished.  I have buttons I want to add, a bit of "quilting" (I use that term loosely) and the backing, which will include some of the tie, also.

I hope you like the start of my recycle project.  Remember, anything is acceptable at Moo Mania and More as long as it follows the theme.