Monday, September 2, 2013

Just JoAnne Fabrics - Design Wall Monday

Test Fabric 419M - Scoured Kona Cotton
One thing I've learned after 20 years of quilting, is that you never know what you're going to find at JoAnn's Fabrics.  Friday, I had an hour to kill so I started exploring their red tagged clearance rack.  With all the bolts at 50% off - I thought - What the Heck!  And gosh - I wasn't disappointed!  I found  a nice linen  cotton blend,a white cotton with a light texture to it,  a bolt of light yellow cotton, a cool textured rayon with a nice hand and this really great burnt knit.  Now I know what you're saying -
"Nina - what are you going to do with all of that?"  Well dye it of course!

With PFD (prepared for dyeing) getting more and more expensive (plus shipping since I can't get it locally), I thought I would scour these fabrics and see how well they take dye.  I ran them through two hot wash cycles of the wash using a non additive detergent and Soda Ash. Then I mixed up some pretty purplish magenta dye concentrate (Grape/with a bit of fushia) and dyed fat quarters in my red solo cups.  I also added a piece of Test Fabrics 419M (mercerized) fabric and scoured Kona cotton (also from Joann's) to see how they compared. 

Here are the results:


  1. Test Fabric 419M
  2. Kona Cotton Scoured by Me
  3. Rayon
  4. Linen/ cotton 
  5. Cotton 
  6. Yellow Cotton ($2/yd!)
So as you can see - there wasn't a difference between the Kona and the Test Fabrics - the Rayon dyed up wonderfully.  Just a shade lighter were the linens and cottons.  With that yellow cotton being only $2  - I'm going back for the rest of the bolt.  For an overdyed it came out really nice!  I mean unless you need really saturated blocks of color - it would work well for anything!

Also, I found this  wonderful grey burnt knit.  It has this wonderful textured and layers to it.  Isn't this full of possibilities??

So you're never quite sure what you're going to find at Joann's.  They also had a 15% off your entire order - so I did get a real bargain on all the fabrics.  

And yes - while I was doing all this fun experimenting I did manage to start quilting my fall piece.  I first started doing it with my regular presser foot but soon changed to free motion.  This is the first time I've used Metro's poly thread which worked well as long as I lowered the speed of the needle just a bit.  I used a top stitch needle with sewer's aid.  The spray basting is holding well!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Labor Day - here its raining (big surprise!)

See more great design boards at Judy's Patchwork Times!

12 comments:

Norma Schlager said...

How about that! I'm going to stop in JoAnne's tomorrow and see what 's on sale. Thanks for the info.

Robbi Joy Eklow said...

I'm surprised and impressed! It was worth the experiment. Good for you.

Heather Pregger said...

I'll have to try JoAnns PDF -- I like the results!

Nina Marie said...

the Kona wasn't even PFd - I just scoured it myself. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Kona Pfd on the Joanne's shelves!

Marilyn Wall said...

Nina Marie, I love the polyester fabric. What do you mean by burnt polyester?

Sheila Frampton-Cooper said...

Great results Nina-Marie! And I love that grey textured knit! That's a really great pattern... :)

It's all about doing a good scour, and you can get really great results and save a bunch of money.

You should try the Legacy Premium Muslin from JoAnn one of these days because it's a little tighter and smoother then the Kona (if that even matters to you). It also comes in 90" and 120".

Have a splendid day! :)

Nina Marie said...

Marilyn - There is a new knit out in fashion wear - its called burnt outs - what that means is that the knit is cut away to leave a sheer underneath. Some knit tops that are burnt almost looks like a top that has been worn and worn - so that the worn spots are beginning to show through.

Sherrie Spangler said...

The gray textured fabric is wonderful! Be sure to show us what you do with it.

Margaret said...

That magenta is pretty wild! We don't have a JoAnn's here, but next time I stumble into Fabric Land, I'm going to be more open-minded! :-)

wlstarn said...

I do the same thing at work at a different fabric chain. Cotton pique, gauze, rayon challis, sateen(love), anything white that might dye well comes home with me (good thing I get a discount). I like the cotton solids for shibori dyeing. Everything gets scoured in the washer, although the solid colors go with like colors. The linen always seems to take the dye a shade or 2 lighter.

wlstarn said...

Oh, and I like the Legacy Muslin from Joann. Nice hand.

Madalene Axford Murphy said...

Wow! If fabrics like those dye that well, I am going to have to start experimenting. The possibilities are endless.