I looked at the linen cloth that was left after sewing this past week and decided there was enough white linen to try contact printing the pattern pieces for the cowl neck shirt. Since I planted some small leaved Eucalyptus trees last fall, I decided to try some of those leaves. They are the small ones on this test cloth. The large one on the left is from the walnut tree. There was a Japanese maple leaf in there as well. I dipped them all in an iron bath before putting them onto the dry linen. And because there were some Eucalyptus leaves left from two years ago when a friend had some sent from California, I stuck those on as well.
Those leaves from California were completely dried out but I liked the color. I did not like the purply tone of the other leaves….probably too much iron in the bath dip.
So I decided to try it on the pattern pieces with some adjustments in the bath and steaming. (I love using my hide covered rocks to hold pattern pieces in place.)
Here are the pieces after wrapping them dry around small PVC pipe and tying with cotton string as tight as I could get them. They were then dipped only on their ends into the heavy iron bath from before. Then steamed for a bit over an hour. They looked like they had too much pale rust color showing so I decided to put several large black tea bags in the water and then just lower them all in that for an overnight soak.
This morning I unwrapped them and gave them a rinse in a solution of dirty iron water with black tea water and vinegar. Here they are wrung out and drying until I can wash lightly, dry and iron before sewing them into the shirt.
Front.
Back.
Sleeve.
The back did not pick up the Eucalyptus leaves from California as well as the front. But I like it overall. The nice grey is from the black tea overnight bath and the beige is not as pinkish.
I will show it finished after the sewing.
The linen is lovely and comes from the online store, FabricStore.com.
More later.