Reviewed by
Mary
Craftiosity creates wonderful craft projects the create beautiful and useful objects for the home. They use different techniques and materials each time, which is a great way to try out lots of fun ideas!
I was quite excited to receive this project from Craftiosity because it involves tie-dying, which I’ve only tried a couple of times but I love! There is also another technique in this project, which is iron-on vinyl. This is extra appealing because I’ve used this before, and it can be really effective and slightly outside the usual crafty techniques. And it’s a tea towel, which is a super useful thing, I have lots of different ones.
Everything you need is in the box, instructions, orange dye, salt (which is needed for the dye), rubber bands for tie dying, a sheet of bright yellow iron-on vinyl, stirring stick, gloves, a template, and of course the blank tea towel.
The first thing to do is to create the pattern for the tie dye. There is one suggested in the instruction book, but I thought might try a different pattern, a spiral. I had a quick google to check. TO do a spiral, you pinch the centre of the cloth and kind of twist it round, then when it’s all twisted you hold it in place with rubber bands.
Next up is the dying process. The dye comes in a pouch you mix with warm water, then you add it to more hot water in the sink or plastic tub to which you’ve added the salt. The instructions are all quite clear, and they’re on the dye packet as well. Then using gloves (you don’t want orange hands!) dunk the tied up tea towel in the dye and leave it for an hour.
The instructions said to use the stick to turn the rolled up tea towel every 15 minutes to make sure it stayed submerged. However mine always wanted to float the same way up, so I decided to weigh it down with the jug I used for the dye.
After the hour is up, drain the dye, run the bundle under cold water until it runs clear, then it’s time to unwind it, wash it (I put it in the machine on a quick wash) and leave it to dry.
This is what it looks like just out of the washer, still very crumpled but I like the pattern! It’s not exactly a spiral, but I like the circle effect.
While it’s drying, it’s time to have a play with the iron-on vinyl. Now, the kit includes a sheet of templates for creating fun geometric shapes. These are very easy to create, cut out, draw around on the back of the vinyl, then apply.
As it happens, I have a cutting machine, and rather than using the shapes I decided I was going to use my machine to make shapes, or rather in this case, a little phrase. This is absolutely not necessary to do, I just have the equipment to do it. Also I don’t like washing up so I thought it would be fun to give myself some encouragement! But with scissors you can but out lots of things, it cuts really nicely, and you can cut out any shapes you like.
Applying this is exactly the same as cutting out shapes by hand. You cover the vinyl with thin paper – I use baking parchment – and use a dry iron to press down for a few seconds. It’s worth checking to see if it’s adhered properly, so it can be a little trial and error, but when it’s stuck you leave it to cool off a little then remove the thick plastic covering. And it’s nicely stuck down!
After that, use the iron to get rid of the various creases, and here it is all laid out flat. I like the bright yellow with the orange and white, I think it looks really effective.
By Evelyn 
