Balzer Designs

Ice Dyed Dress Muslin

This is one of those projects that started one way and then morphed into something else entirely. I wanted to draft a pattern for an easy summer dress to wear. After I made the pattern, I decided to sew it out of muslin before I actually moved on to "real" fabric. As it turned out, I didn't have any muslin, but I did have some Kona PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. In the absence of muslin, I decided to use it. Once I put the "muslin" version of the dress together, it wasn't quite right and yet I found I... Read more →

Ice Dyeing Scrunch

I did some more ice dyeing this week! But this time I didn't do any fancy folding or tying, I simply scrunched up the fabric. Check out my scrunch results: I did the t-shirts in two batches and each time I put a piece of fabric underneath the rack to "catch" the excess dye. These are the pieces of fabric that I scrunched up under the t-shirts: There are some really lovely details in there. But I'm not sure if I like the scrunch quite as much as the folding and tying...but it could also be because I tried to... Read more →

Ice Dyeing

I experimented with some ice dyeing over the weekend and I looove the results. In fact, I can't stop. Every day I take something that sat overnight and wash it out and then I start a new dye project. I think I'm addicted.... The process is simple: 1. Wash your fabric (or t-shirt or apron or table runner or whatever). This is to get rid of any sizing or other chemicals. You do want to use something made from 100% cotton or the dye won't stick. 2. Soak your fabric in a Soda Ash and water mixture for 20 minutes.... Read more →