It’s Spring…

It’s been 6 months since my last post. I did shows in October, November and December. I’ve mostly only been doing shows at the Douglasville Police Department and L&R Alpaca Haven. These hosts do shows in spring and late fall (April - June then October - December)

I have been adding new styles/patterns of dying to my repertoire! I have also discovered a new vendor for dyes. Happy Cat Dyes have great colors that split into many other shades. That is her specialty. I’ve got 5 colors so far and I can’t wait to play with them more!

First order of business is filling in my stock. I did a show today and I made a count of what I need to fill in holes in my inventory. After that is completed, I will add two more styles of shirts to my collection.

This was jsut a quick note to say hello again!

It’s Been Awhile!!!

Hello again! 8 months since my last blog. This one will be very personal so feel free to ignore it! I’m also writing it after finishing a nice shot of Salted Caramel Whiskey! Wheee!

Life has been crazy! My personal life was getting hectic. I was dealing with emotional issues and just started therapy 4 months ago and antidepressants 4 weeks ago. I seem to be more stable now! My husband was working out of state and not home much. I was lonely and miserable. He and I are determined to make our marriage go in a better direction. We had to talk about all our issues that we had kept hidden from each other. That was hard to hear! I was also dealing with the fact that my 20 year old son would be moving out soon. Empty nest syndrome hit me hard! I started going to the gym and eating better. I cut out sodas completely and drink water with flavor enhancers. I dropped 16 lbs and down to a size 2 and weigh right around 100 lbs. I feel great!

I took a break from selling tie dye during the summer. I spent that time working on my cosplay for DragonCon. I started selling again in September. And I had to restock my regular patterns as well as try to find new ones to make. I will be finishing the inventory re-stash next week as my husband will be out of state Monday through Friday. He is now working only 40 minutes from home.

New Shirt Styles!!

I created two new styles that combined my tie dying and my screen printing. One is still a work in progress. I need to prefect the dying part and find an easier mandala design.

The second one I am really happy/giddy about! It has a Nerd Girl Emoji on front and then the bow and #nerdgirl on the back!

2022 Updates

So…been about 2 months since my last blog. 2021 ended all right for me!

I did an outdoor show at a ranch. Sales were pretty good. A horse tried to run away with one of my shirts! Gorgeous horses! Two weeks later - I did a show in Riverdale. Definitely not my market. I paid $75 for the spot but only made $23 in sales. We didn’t get many customers. I usually try to buy stuff from my neighbors but it’s usually after I’ve made a profit.

My mother sent me $50 in gift cards for JoAnn’s so I bought a screen printing kit. You cut the design in vinyl using the Cricut machine. You remove the design from the vinyl leaving large background piece of vinyl. (Make sure image is in reverse) Place a transfer sheet on the top and peel off the bottom sheet. Flip vinyl over and lay screen on top. Use squeegee to smooth it on firmly. Place screen on top of shirt where you want it and place paint (screen printing paint by Speedball) across top of design and then squeegee down 3-4 times. Viola! I’ve made two designs doing this so far and am going to do a third one by Friday!

My next show is this weekend. It’s in Newnan GA. Outdoors and it is “flipping” cold out now! Brrr!!! The show after that is February 5th at a Dog Show in Dallas GA. I’m doing the new shirts and dog bandannas for that show. Going to do scrunch - one color, geodes and mandalas for those bandannas. Ordered the bandannas from both Amazon and Dharma. Can’t wait to play with them!

My husband is working at a nuclear plant in Tennessee. He is working there as they “refit” the plant and fix things due to age and usage. All power plants go through these refits on a schedule. This is my husband’s first nuclear plant. He worked for years as a welder and then a certified welding inspector. He is now quality control on the work that many different fields of craftsmen are completing. One of the screen printed designs was my American flag shirt with a logo that said “Union Ironworker” with two crossed wrenches. He’s planning on having me do others for the other craftsmen he will be working with on this job and others in the future.

Oh! and my happy dance is for the rainbow swirls I’ve done. I did two shirts and a sweatshirt. ON a shirt and sweatshirt, I screen printed my logo outline in black. I wanted a “company shirt” for when I do my shows. I wore the sweatshirt to work and it looked FREAKING AWESOME!!!!

So, that’s about it for my update.

Organization and New Styles

While I was selling items at my first pop up, I realized that I was missing sizes of different styles. After coming home from the show, I decided to take inventory!

My Excel sheet -

The highlights are those that I need to get done!

I created a spreadsheet that had the styles of the shirts in the rows and sizes in columns. I realized I was missing a lot of M and L in certain styles as my husband and I had taken them for our own because we liked them!

I also did not have any 3XL shirts at all and only had a few S shirts. I can’t do the sewing styles on George brand shirts The shirt will not allow a needle to pass through. I will have to use Hanes brand to do these shirts. This led to a lot of thinking about which shirts I most wanted to feature.

I ordered some black shirts to do some reverse dye styles. I am going with vortex, yin yang and wave. The fourth style will be either geodes or the vortex from a different point.

I will be busy the week of Thanksgiving - making 4 more hangers (see blog on craft shows) and getting some shirts dyed. My next show is on December 4th and I hope to have msot of my “holes in inventory” filled by then.

Me organizing shirts by design.

Since I display my shirts on the macrame hangers, I wanted to be able to get the shirts I needed to be together instead of being organized by sizes. I am hoping this makes everything smoother. I also bought new hangers that are flatter and have smaller hook so I can get two shirts in one of the plastic rings and have shirts front to back on the hanger..

Craft Shows (aka Pop Up Vendor Events)

I did my first Craft Show on November 13th. The event was at Alpaca Haven farm in Douglasville,GA. This is my town. Doing my first show in my hometown helped my comfort level.

I bought a 10 X 10 pop up tent and weights. We’re using a table and two chairs we already had at our home. We also have a cool metal wagon that can be used to move stuff where it is going to be set up. I purchased 3 underbed storage containers to keep my shirts in. I sorted my stock by sizes. Small and Medium are in one tote, Large and X-Large in another tote. 2XL & 3XL, masks and headbands are in the third tote. I also keep my Square card reader, signs, tapestry and cash bag in the third tote. I also have hangers - both plastic for shirts and “hangers” for display.

I bought macrame cord and made “hangers” to display my shirts. I’m actually really pleased about the hangers. (Making 4 more to have a total of 12) (I also got to use the macrame skills I got from classes my mom put me in as a teen) The hangers are 18 feet of cord for center cords and I cut 36 feet for the knotting cords. I usually cut about 30 feet more to complete the hanger. I attach the cords to a D ring. I make 5 square knots then leave outer cords to the side and use hitch knots to attach a small white plastic ring. I knot square knots for 18 inches and add another ring. I repeat this one more time and then complete square knots until I run out of outer cord then do hitch knot with the inner cord. At the tent, I attach these with twist ties to the metal frame and use tent stakes to keep them vertical and secure to the ground. These allow me to display my shirts nicely.

My booth at my first ever pop up event

New Station Set-Up

On Sunday, October 31 - AKA Halloween - my husband installed my utility sink in the basement. This allows me to do my dying and rinsing indoors as Autumn has arrived in Georgia and it is getting very cold!

I’ve got my dyes separated by colors and placed on top shelves. ON the left, below the dyes are the tools for dying - my cake mold forms, my container of soda ash and aluminum foil.

Bottom shelves hold bottles for liquid dye or containers for hot water immersion.

Under my work table are crates for holding racks and small containers, stacks of my wash bins, rags and empty dye jars I use when I do dying in the muck.

I am hoping to get a few shelves to go over my sink. I also need to get a holder for rubber bands, my small scissors for cutting thread, gloves, and for a sponge.

I am very happy with the station and it is working out well, I can dye 3-5 items at a time if doing ice dye. If wet dye - I can dye lots more!

Holiday Designs

I had the week of October 11th to the 15th off. I spent that Friday (10/8) going shopping with my husband - getting shelves, organizational trays and other stuff needed to make myself more efficient.

I got a lot of the tie-dyes that had been waiting around for dying or colors completed. My Baby Yoda turned out really good.

I also got some stuff worked out in my brain about where I want to go with my business and how I want to get it done.

First decision was that I want to do some craft fairs - maybe one or two a month, but regionally. I will not travel further than 100 miles. I will need a pop-up awning and a way to display my stuff off of awning. Folded up shirts will get unfolded and messy quickly (years of retail experience there!) or they won’t pull in customers.

Second decision was that I wanted to do seasonal shirts - holidays. I just dyed a Halloween and Christmas style. I rinse tomorrow and will see how they work out. I just tied up one for Valentine’s day. I will then get what I need to do Fourth of July. I don’t know yet if I want to do one for St. Patrick’s or Easter. I will post pics below tomorrow after the shirts are washed and cleaned.

Supplies & Organization

Creating tie-dye takes a lot of supplies! First and foremost are dyes and soda ash. The dyes are fiber reactive dyes. If you go to my page about “How it Began” you will see the companies I buy dyes from.

These dyes require natural fibers and I use 100% cotton shirts. I prefer to use tag-less shirts. I hate having to fuss with the tag while I am dying. I buy my shirts online - Hanes or similar multi packs of white undershirts. I also grab them in multi-packs at Wal-Mart or Dollar General. I just bought some in the George brand from Wal-Mart and will see how those go.

Tubs - larger laundry tubs that I found at Dollar General - and racks are helpful for dying. I also bought a gutter piece from Home Depot I had my husband cut it into 3 pieces for incline dyes (Watch).

Cake molds - these are silicone flexible strips that can be shaped to form around your shirt for an ice dye. These are really awesome and I have two sets of them. Clothespins are also helpful for keeping the shape of the from and attach to the rack.

Kitchen gloves - I use Playtex living gloves to handle my projects. ***Believe me - you will have dyed fingernails and tie-dye hands if you don’t***

Homer tub from Home Depot. I have a 5 gallon tub with lid that I keep soda ash water in for soaking my shirts. I don’t snap the lid on but keep it over the top.

Squeeze bottles and small jars with lids - bottles for liquid dye and jars for mixing dyes and soda ash for hot water infusion. I have 16 oz, 8 oz and 3 oz bottles. The smallest bottles have needle tips for thickened dye.

Sodium alginate - used to thicken dyes. Add sodium alginate to water (use an immersion blender because the stuff will just glob up) to make thick water to keep a space white. The thickness will keep other dyes from seeping into the space. Add dye to thick water and you can create clearly defined lines in your dyes. This really helps when you do a stitched design

Hot Water Kettle (Electric) - I got this for doing hot water immersion. This boils water quickly and mine has a setting that will let me “lock” it at 160 degrees.

Tubs, containers and shelving units - I will be getting a shelving unit for my carport working area to keep my dyes, tubs, bottles and racks. I got drawer divider organizers to get my dyes organized by colors - pinks together, reds together..etc. I keep all my completed shirts in a dresser in my back bedroom where I do my painting and tying. I also want to get a shelf to keep my supplies for that room.

Fabric Paint - I use Jaquard Textile paint. This paint has to have several layers to be visible and must be heat set prior to washing. Paintbrushes for detail are helpful to be more precise. I also have six well palettes.

Crochet string, sinew and rubber bands - many dyers use kite string but I am using what supplies I already have at home. Sinew is for doing mandalas and geodes. It helps to have a puller. I use a tart press that is wood that I found on Amazon. The wood allows you to grab the sinew and tighten it. Sinew starts slipping around the original spool and can be hard to tighten. Rubber bands are great. I like thinner bands. I am still working on finding which ones are best.

Synthrapol detergent (or similar) - I typically wash my shirts when they are taken out of the packaging in either Synthrapol or All Free & Clear. (It all depends on how many shirts I am washing - 3 or less I use a capful of Synthrapol, other wise if there’s a lot of shirts, I just use a pod of Free and Clear laundry detergent )

Creating Nerdy Shirts

I wanted to find a design that was exclusively “ME” and was different from other tie-dye creators. As my son told me - I needed a “hook” that would set me apart from others. I also wanted to design something that called to my nerdy self.

The designs I first tried were Baby Yoda, Princess Leia and the Tardis. I added on Loki and Harley mask. The hardest part - which I am currently going through - is waiting for my dyes to arrive from the company.

These styles are ones where you sew the design. The design has to be symmetrical. You find the center of the front of the shirt and then lay the template on it at the fold. I trace the design using a washable marker that is close to the color I will be dying the section. After it is all traced, I shade in the section so that I don’t get confused later during the dying process.

I use a dark brown upholstery thread to make small stitches around the design. The thread is folded in half. Once the sewing is all done, you draw up the thread and tighten it by tying it in a knot. This causes the area where the design is to be all bunched up. It does makes sense why many people just crumple up the shirt. I’ve been trying to do a fan fold for Loki but it is hard with both the sleeves. I will see if it works when I get my dyes in. It takes an hour to ninety minutes to do each shirt - sewing and tying the rest.

The other challenge is dying it. Most people who do the sewing technique use liquid dye with thickened dye for the design part. One artist (Meo Faustino) uses dyes prepared for Hot Water Infusion (HWI) on the whole shirt. I am going to try to see if I can do the thickened dye on the design and HWI or Ice Dye on the rest of the shirt. Crossing my fingers!

Above this is a set of 4 pictures. I tried to tie dye a Tardis. The shape was somewhat ambiguous. I ordered some fabric paint and painted the design. It took about 2 hours to get each one finished. I still need to get the light at the top of the Tardis painted in - waiting on the yellow paint.

The background was yellow and blue because I was trying to copy the “Exploding Tardis” background. Still debating on trying to create it using paint.

Worked on Baby Yoda shirts on 10/3. I will have to paint details but the design is pretty good. Going to tweak the stencil to make the green below the pink on ears thicker. Will post final pictures for all of the nerdy tie-dyes when I have them all finished and painted. Below is the “rough draft” of Baby Yoda

November 13: Revamped my Baby Yoda design. Set it to dye today. Will rinse and wash tomorrow! Hoping the simpler design will make it better. Will be adding highlight to eye in white and stars in what I hope is a galaxy design on the rest of the shirt!

Nerd-doms

I have always been an avid book reader. I love delving into the fantasy of other worlds or lives unlike my own. I also was a huge fan of Superfriends, X-Men and other superheroes. I loved the stories or comics about groups of heroes banding together.

I started reading Harry Potter in 2000 when I learned that my birth daughter liked the series, games and movies. I was communicating with her adoptive parents and so I read the series to feel a connection to her. My son was born in 2002 and he was raised watching the movies. ““Chamber of Secrets” was his “Frozen”. We watched that SO many times! 4 In 20210 when Universal Studios opened the Hogwarts section - we were there! When they opened the Diagon Alley part - we were there a few months after they opened.

My favorite characters have always been the quirky, offbeat or goofy personalities. I have always been drawn to them. Harley Quinn and Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter) were always my favorites. Minions were hilarious and Olaf from Frozen was adorable and goofy!

I moved to Georgia in 2011 after getting married. We heard radio ads for DragonCon but were just getting settled. It was not until I started work at the residential facility in 2013 that I asked my husband if we could go for one day just to check it out. I had never attended a convention before (except a few math teacher conventions) and I was curious to see what it was all about.

We went for the Saturday show and parade. We had a long line to buy our ticket. We saw a lot of cool costumes while in line - including a picture perfect Captain Jack Sparrow - and Professor Snape and McGonagall. We got our passes and got breakfast. We then made our way to a parking garage to watch the parade. My son, Tristan, and I were completely “geeking out” seeing all the different groups of cosplays int he parade. My husband also had his interests and loved seeing all the costumes and props. We loved the: Dr. Who, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters, DC & Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Resident Evil. and some others we did not recognize at the time but still thought the costumes were amazing. . We left the parade and went to the vendor hall. We purchased some stuff and decided that we wanted to attend the next year for the whole weekend. This became a family thing.

We would plan our costumes for the next convention. I have done Harley Quinn, Professor Trelawny and Arya Stark. My son does anime and manga or computer games. My husband does horror. We started out with one costume for the whole convention. We’ve now branched out to 2 or 3 costumes.

For 2022, we are planning to start Wednesday evening. This will require another costume or two. So between tie-dyeing shirts, I will be working on two new costumes for 2022 DragonCon

Crafting

I was raised in a crafty home. My mother sews, knits and does many other crafts. I spent much of my time going with my mother to craft stores. My mother’s side of the family is also into crafts. My grandmother made quilts and knitted. My aunts have done a multitude of other crafts.

I grew up a military dependent and my mother would enroll me in craft classes in the summer to keep me occupied. I learned macrame, pouring ceramics and batik dying. I have, over the years, learned and mastered a lot of different crafts. Many of the times, I learned the crafts so I could make presents for the holidays. I have always felt that a craft created especially for a person is that extra touch that helps the holiday season. I later applied my craft skills to cosplaying. I attend DragonCon in Atlanta on Labor Day weekend. I enjoy making and creating costumes and props.

Crafts I have learnt are: cross-stitch, sewing, chain maille, polymer clay, Kumihimo & friendship braids, sculpting, crochet, epoxy resin casting and now tie-dyeing, Below is a gallery with some images of stuff I have created over the years.