Natural Dying: Cochineal

The red colour from Cochineal beetles (pronounced Koch-i-neel), called carminic acid, has been used in South America since the time of the Aztecs. We ordered ours from Maiwa in Vancouver and used an ice cream scoop to crush the shells into a powder. The top picture is of silk yardage dyed with cochineal and Becca will probably use it to make herself a new tank top or a scarf!

Natural Dye Workshop: Indigo Dying with Paper People Clothing

We had such incredible results from the natural dying workshop on Friday. Here is Jenn, my awesome and talented friend, dying some silk shirts using Indigo dye. Jenn is a designer at her own label Paper People Clothing and hopefully some of these dying experiments will become part of her next collection! Jenn and her assistant Siv used some silk shirts and wool sweaters to test each of the dyes. Indigo is like nothing I've ever used to dye with before. The Thioureadioxide and Sodium Carbonate created a reaction that caused the Indigo to heat and foam up, turning a brilliant kelly green mixed with foamy deep blue.

I'd really like to dye some heavy cotton canvas with Indigo dye and sew it into a cropped bolero jacket before spring next year, or maybe a new canvas bag... Keep checking back for the next dying workshop dates!

Natural Dye Workshop: Walnuts

We had SO much fun at the natural dye workshop here at the studio on Friday. With so many different colours and smells coming from the bubbling dye pots, I was reminded just how awesome mother nature really is. The walnuts that have been decomposing in water on the back patio all month... Siv is dipping the wooly sweater into the dye bath here, wrapped in nylon mesh to protect it from all the walnut husks. When the husks started to rot, they turned the water into the most amazing inky brown colour. The dye bath looked like a witches brew, but when we started to warm up the walnuts on the stove, it smelled like baking bread - warm and spicy, with no chemical smells at all. The final colour with walnut dye is actually more of a golden brown rather than deep chocolate like the dye bath, but still amazing that they can turn water such an intense shade of brown!

Style Your Own Magazine with Jenn Nouveau!

Ever imagined yourself editing an issue at Vogue? Art directing at ID? Here's your chance to make it happen while you channel your inner Grace Coddington. Be the creative engine of your very own magazine - learn colour theory, styling tips and then develop your concepts into a photoshoot with real models. The final project will be a collaborative mini-magazine featuring your own photography, concept and styling! Taught by Jenn Nouveau, Art Director at Atelier Magazine

Starts on Saturday Nov 19th, 11am - 2pm
Ages 14-17
Class runs for 6 weeks
Class fee is $220~
(Max 5 students)

Untitled from Magazine Atelier on Vimeo.

Which Craft Series: Vegetable Dying 101/Friday Oct 28th

Double, double, toil and trouble... Muahahaha! Nothing like stirring a big cauldron of inky black walnut dye right before Halloween. I love the smell of a big pot of walnut dye, it is like baking walnut bread or even buttertarts except you won't be eating these buttertarts - you'll be wearing them! The photo above shows how many different ways there are to tie fabric before dying it. Witchcraft seems to be in the air right now, with Madeline sewing a pentagram and red tail onto her bathrobe right before Dentata played the Pop Festival in Montreal - not to mention Karen Palmer and her amazing new book, Spellbound - the story of her travels to a West African Witch Camp.

Karen is learning how to sew at The Make Den and sewing is it's own kind of magic - crafty and clever, it never gets boring and weaves a kind of spell over you. The more you do it - the more you want to do! So the "Which Craft" series is named for Karen and Madeline and their Witchy ways.

Vegetable Dying 101 uses Walnut dye, a South American insect (called the Cochineal) and Logwood to create simple but beautiful patterns on silk and wool. Simple mordanting procedures are used to ensure your fabric is colourfast after dying it. Vegetable Dying runs from 11am-2pm and the class fee is $45~. Fabric is not included. Fabric must be delivered to the studio 1 week prior to class for pre-mordanting. Email themakeden@hotmail.com to register.

Designer Dress Inspiration: Erin Fetherston, Spring 2012

Erin Fetherston is my pick from the seemingly endless stream of delicious new collections on Style.com right now. She makes everything look so simple and effortless - it reminds me of Chole back when Pheobe Philo and Stella McCartney were designing for them. Party girls everywhere will want these pieces come spring 2012 (but you can make your own well before that - shhhhh!)

Living in Jersey (Serger Basics, Sundays 4-7pm)

Mmmmm.... Jersey. And not the kind from the Shore, either. Soft, stretchy comfortable rayon or bamboo jersey. The kind that makes you feel like you can run a little faster and jump a little higher.

Serger Basics runs for 5 weeks, and each class is 3 hrs long.   In the first class, we cover "the basics",  like learning how to thread and adjust the settings on your serger, how to work with knits and how to use a coverseamer to professionally finish your garments.  Then we develop and sew a set of stretchy pant blocks for ourselves in the first class.  You'll need to bring a yard of 4-way stretch cotton fabric to the first class to make your tights.   Once the tights are finished, there is a coverseaming demo for hemming tights and t-shirts.  In the next class, we develop and sew a stretchy turtleneck dress or top.  Class 3 covers the tricks for making underwear and finally classes 4 and 5 are dedicated to developing our own patterns for an independant final project.  The fee for 5 weeks is $220~, which includes HST and covers all patterns, notions and the use of our machines.