Altering Commercial Fabrics

All of the sudden lots of people seem to be experimenting with overdyeing and bleaching commercial fabrics. Austin homegirl Malka Dubrawsky of A Stitch in Dye (shop | blog) seriously rocks these techniques. Above: her Twinkle Quilt, featured on a recent cover of Quilting Arts Magazine.

There are so many possibilities here. By using resists of various shapes, you can create faux patchwork. Malka shares her plexiglass sandwich technique+here. She also uses wax resists (batik) to wonderful effect. Look for her book slated to come out later this year.

Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson! tried overdyeing (above) and bleaching. The bleached versions look great as coordinates for the original fabrics. Just take a look at the quilt blocks she made using both the “before” and “after” versions.

Nicole from Craftapalooza and Whip Up just gave bleaching a shot too.

And for every good trend, there must be a Flickr group to document it, right? Take Charge, Discharge! Give It a Try, Overdye! was just started by r0ssie, who is also the admin for Fresh Modern Quilts. She’s holding a great giveaway to kick off the group and encourage submissions. Keep your eye on the group for information on techniques and reports about people’s results with various kinds of fabric.