Busy, but fun weekend

I know I've said this before, but I feel that one can never have enough dyed cheesecloth!! I'm working on a new orange piece & while dyeing my bamboo fabric, I thought, "hey, why not, maybe I could incorporate it into the piece."

I had a terrible time at dyeing my bamboo the right shade of orange this weekend. I had wonderful temperatures in the upper 70's to dye. I used fresh dye & soda ash to pre-soak. It was all perfect, except when I took it out of the dye bath, rinsed it & let it dry. It turned out a lot lighter than planned. I generally dye small samples of the same fabric that are planned for the bigger pieces first so I know what shade I want & the recipe needed to obtain this shade again. It was my own fault. I had dyed some Kona fabric earlier in a "make orange" run & thought that one of those shades would be nice to use for my bamboo fabric. I should have known better, it totally took the dye differently. (I hate it when after taking the time involved in dyeing something - I normally batch my dyes 24 hours - you end up with something that you're not happy with) I ended up over-dyeing the piece 2 more times. I was going after a burnt orange color & it wasn't getting there, so the last time, I took the leap & over-dyed it with a very weak turkish red dye bath & batched it only for an hour (having no idea if an hour was long enough). It WORKED!! Hopefully after the weekend, I'll have some progress to post for you to see.

My husband brought up a good question & I didn't have the answer since I've never had it happen to me. Has anyone ever dyed & re-dyed something so many times that it could no longer take the dye? Is this even possible? Am curious to hear your feedback on this.....

I had to post this below. Have you ever seen something in a catalog or a store & said, "oh I can make that for a lot cheaper" & you never end up buying it or making it? We went to a street fair last July & bought a cute dog collar for our dog, Taryn. Of course, we didn't think at the time about getting her a matching leash, so mom decided to make her one instead. It's taken me almost a year to get it finished (you know how you put aside those things that "oh it can wait, there are more important things to do"). It's probably not very creative, but was a lot of fun to do & it only took me about an hour to make. Taryn is now the envy of all of the dogs in her neighborhood!! :)