Hand painted silk ties

Last time I made a post about hand painting silk ties (http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/06/silk-ties-product-development.html) I was trying to decide which method of dyeing was going to work the best. On the one hand, I could deconstruct the tie, dye it, iron it, and sew it back together. This had the benefit of keeping the interfacing dry, but it was difficult to line the fabric back up correctly after dyeing. On the other hand, I could just dye the tie whole. However, the edges were a little wavy with this method.

I had an idea though. I needed to see if the dyes were going to stand up to the dry cleaning process, so I sent the tie that I had dyed in one piece to the cleaners. When it came back, the colors were as intense as they started out, so the dye passed the cleaning test. Also, the dry cleaning process evened out the edges of the tie, to the point that nobody else could tell that there had been an issue.

I decided that the extra $2.50 for dry cleaning a tie was definitely better than taking my time to deconstruct and re-sew the danged things. I don't like hand sewing, you see. I just want to play with the colors!

So, I got two dozen more scarf blanks. Yesterday I started dyeing. I'm pleased with the way they're coming out so far!

I have several more to make, and they all will need to be ironed and dry cleaned. But look for them in the Etsy shop (tangibledaydreams.etsy.com) in a few weeks.