Arcadia Green: Attempt 2. Maybe.

So I had to do a little creative hunting to get the second dye batch.  Between Wednesday night last week and Saturday afternoon, Hobby Lobby completely shifted stuff around and the whole notions wall, including the shelf w/ the dyes, had moved.  I finally had to ask an employee...and it turned out she was working right in front of them.

And the aquamarine, of which an entire bottle is required in the mix for Arcadia Green, was out of stock.  Bummer. I bought some emerald green and a dusky blue, mostly because that's all they had, to see if I could approximate it.  I was plenty nervous about it, but didn't know what else to do.

But I had to pick up some milk, and, wouldn't you know, Publix had a decent selection of Rit dye.  Including Aquamarine.

So I mixed up another dye batch, intending to leave it in longer.  But this time I also put in a chunk of the 'too-gray' white cotton lycra knit.  One way or another, I was gonna get Arcadia Green.

I agitated it for 45 minutes instead of the prescribed 30, and when I pulled the fabric out of the dryer...the rayon/lycra was still too yellow, and I thought the cotton/lycra was too light.

But when I put the Pantone color swatch against it (the top one on the card)...it's about spot on.  Funny...the color on the choir facebook page looks darker.  And it's a dead match for the aqua post-it notepad.

Y'all, we wore this color three or four years ago and called it 'Lucite Green'.  Wore it two or three years before that and called it 'Seafoam'.  Sometime in the past, we just called it Mint Green.

So maybe I have  a couple of pieces somewhere that will do.  And I can make up a Jalie T from the cotton/lycra.  The Rayon...I'll put that back for another day.  Or another dye bath.  I honestly don't know if the yellowish cast to the original fabric is what is giving the yellowed results or if it's just not taking that dye due to fiber content.

BUT...wouldn't you know...yesterday I got slammed with a nasty sinus infection that sent me to the Dr this morning for antibiotics and had me napping under warm facial compresses all afternoon.  I may not have a singing voice this weekend anyway.  And I don't feel much like sewing.

Arcadia Green Attempt One: Fail

According to a Google Search on Arcadia Green, it is Pantone 16-5533.

So I had a standard against which to check my dye results.

Which were abysmal.

Granted, the color rendering in the photo isn't spot on, it really is slightly less yellow, but still.  Not gonna work.

The gluey dots applied along the selvage for, I suppose, stabilization took the color just fine.  But the rest of the yardage...not so much.  It is *supposed* to be a rayon/lycra blend but now I'm wondering if that's quite accurate.

So, I will try again, and I will leave the fabric in the bath for a bit longer with less yellow in the mix.

And I'll throw in a second piece...if I can't get past mint green on the first one I should still get something useful.

But first I gotta make another run to Hobby Lobby for some more Aquamarine dye.

And maybe I'll check my bead stash to see if I have some Arcadia green beads so I can just make a chunky necklace.  If it weren't Easter Weekend, for which we have services spanning three days, I'd make do like I did this month (I will have worn the same top 3 out of 4 Sundays...)  But there's not a chance to do laundry between Saturday night and Sunday morning and the stage is HOT, so...

I'll try again this evening.

A little weekend project...

So, the choir will be wearing something called 'Arcadia Green', along with black and gray, for April.

But Easter Weekend services start Friday night...with April colors.

And I have ONE thing in my wardrobe that is close to the right color...kind of a dark mint green to my eye.

I did peruse my usual suppliers but didn't find anything that really looked right.

Then I got a wild notion and did a search for Rit Dye Color charts...and found

Rit Dye formula for Arcadia Green: 
1 Bottle Aquamarine
1⁄4 Cup Teal
1 Tablespoon Lemon Yellow
3 Gallons water

So.  

Now, I have several pieces of white fabric that I have ordered online through the years.  Some are...thinner...than I had anticipated, so they will be undies, someday.

Others were kinda off on the color.  Too gray, too yellow...

Anyway, I pulled the 'too yellow' piece; I have about 2 1/2 yards or so.

It's gonna go in the dye bath tomorrow.

If it works...I might keep that little trick in mind for the too-gray piece next time an oddball color comes up.

Workwear 35

Because, you know, if you get multiple compliments on an outfit it's worth a post, right?

Specially when there's been precious little sewing happening...

I discovered one of the ladies' rooms at the new-to-us church building in which I work has a MIRROR. So, if I can figure out how to do it better, there might be more workwear posts...

This is a pair of RTW gray jeans, a Vogue 9057 top from olive knit (purportedly rayon/lycra but, well, I kinda doubt that it has much rayon...) and a gorgeous silk/wool blend scarf from Novica.

That just happened to match the green in the top dead on.

In all honesty, I think the scarf was the attraction, rather than the outfit as a whole, but it's worth documenting because it works.

I really like that Vogue pattern, too.  Maybe more of them will show up someday...

Not the week after all..

I have a long, skinny laundry room that really was just a closed off side of the garage.  The sewing nook is on the far end; past the sink, the washer and dryer and clothes rack.

The area at the bottom of the steps down from the main floor of the house was a horrible, horrible mess.  I think stuff got dropped there when we moved in and never moved.  No, I didn't take a 'before' photo of that...it really and truly was too embarrassing.

But that's the only bit of the laundry/sewing room that got cleaned.  My hubby came down with a nasty sinus infection which turned into bronchitis that had him coughing so hard he was actually whooping to get his breath back.  I was scared that he'd somehow contracted whooping cough.  But, no, he was just coughing really bad from the bronchitis.  He's had a z-pack and is better...but not completely back to normal.

So, anyway, he didn't go on his camping trip.   And I didn't get to the sewing nook.  Now I'm trying to decide if I want to just piecemeal the cleaning or wait for another clear weekend.  Problem is, I want to haul everything out of the room into the den, which is a bad idea if there are other people around.

The kids have been hosting a movie night every Sunday, watching all the Marvel movies in order to prepare for the premier happening at the end of next month.  So I don't think I can spread out the sewing room contents for an extended period.  At least not until the end of April.

So maybe I'll just suck it up and keep sewing in the chaos a bit longer.  You can see just a wee bit of it in the background of that photo...We'll see.  I still need a long black top to wear with those Tigger leggings...

Meantime, the bottom of the stairs looks SO MUCH BETTER....

No pics...but at least something's done!

The Princess gave me leggings for Christmas...you know, the direct-sales, super soft,  a Facebook group for every rep trendy leggings.

They are printed w/ Tigger all over them.

Black, white, yellow, orange.

I didn't have a single thing I could wear them with. Not being of the 'Leggings are pants' mindset, I needed a nice long top that coordinated.

So I finally pulled out a chunk of black jersey knit last week and cut out a top I've been wanting to make for a while; Butterick 5925 , one of Katherine Tilton's loose designs.  Not the one with the pocket-bags-below-the  hem;  that just looks weird.  But the other one, with the pockets in the godets.

I traced it off last week, did my usual raise-and-shorten the shoulders and cut it out.  Took a couple of sewing sessions, but I finished it last night.

And tried it on with the leggings today.

It's a cute, comfy top...but it's about 4" too short to wear over leggings, I've decided.  As My Sweet Babboo agreed (he thought it was about 6" too short), I will be pulling out another piece of black knit for a different style at some point.

'Cause, you know, if someone gives you something cute and trendy, you  ought to make an effort to wear it.

I don't know if I'll get a photo of the latest top; it's black, it will be hard to photograph.  I'll probably wait and take a picture the next time I make it up out of wacky knit print remnants.  At least the seams will show up, lol.

I have made next-to-no progress on the sewing room clean up; My Sweet Baboo came down with a nasty respiratory infection and missed his camping trip.  So I had somewhat of a distraction when I had planned to be home alone cleaning.  We'll see if I can get it done in the next three days. Or at least well started.

Gonna take a social media break; maybe that will help focus! :-)