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You are here: Home / All blog posts / It’s Christmas!
Previous post: Postpartum depression
Next post: Thermofax triumph!

February 28, 2012 by Tien Chiu

It’s Christmas!

USPS Santa must have heard me moping, because when I arrived home today there were not one, not two, not three, but FOUR packages waiting for me!

In those packages was:

  • Twenty sheets of thermofax screen
  • Ten thermofax screen frames
  • Eight white T-shirts
  • Six pairs of white socks
  • Four black T-shirts
  • Three pairs of sweatpants
  • Two sports bras
  • One book on fashion
  • and a partridge in a pear tree!

My orders from Dharma Trading Co, Welsh Products, and The Strand Bookstore had arrived simultaneously.  Woo hoo!

I have also signed up for an online quilting class.  (Yes, I said a quilting class.  Really!)  It’s a class on foundation piecing, which I think could come in handy in art garments.  I figured that I needed something to get me to stop moping, and since I am goal-oriented, a class would give me the framework and the focus to get stuff done.  The class starts Friday, and runs for four weeks.  Very little is required in the way of supplies, which is good because I haven’t done any messing with surface design on fabric yet, so have no quilting fabric stashed away!

Anyway, in case you’re wondering what I plan to do with this bonanza of packages, I’m taking the opportunity to revamp my wardrobe, add exercise to my routine again, and play with surface design.  The socks, sweatpants, and sports bras are all workout wear.  The four black T-shirts and eight white T-shirts are to replace my increasingly threadbare T-shirt wardrobe.  (I know other people have graduated to “real adult” clothes, but I’m a T-shirt kind of gal.  They can be rumpled, crumpled, and basically look OK, which is more than you can say for most blouses.  And I hate folding laundry.)  Since Dharma sells their clothing blanks super cheap, and gives bulk discounts on top of that, well, let’s just say it was a really good deal.

I have done further tinkering with my Thermofax machine, and it is now almost working properly.  The screens are far clearer, with only a little bit of cloudiness – which hopefully will be fixed when I install the replacement carrier belt (which should arrive tomorrow).  If that doesn’t fix it, I will remove and clean the lamp.  I’ve cleaned it in situ with a cotton swab and it looks pretty good, but I’m sure a more thorough cleaning would be great.  Regardless, things are good enough already that I’m confident I can create usable screens now.  What a relief!

Anyway, I’ve thrown the garments into a hot-water wash to preshrink and scour them before dyeing, screen-printing, etc.  They are PFD (prepared for dyeing) as are most of Dharma’s blanks, but it never hurts to be extra sure, and I’d prefer to work on preshrunk pieces – shrinking pieces might change the aspect ratio in the design, distorting the look.  So I will be washing and drying them.

I think I will spend the rest of this week designing Thermofax screens, in preparation for an orgy of surface design this coming weekend.  Because the foundation piecing class “homework” isn’t due until next Friday, if I hustle, I can get some white quilting fabric dyed, printed, and ready to work with over the weekend.

Whee!  I have a new project.  I can plan away!

(The book on fashion, incidentally, is also really interesting – Breaking the Mode, by Kaye Spilker and Sharon Takeda.  I’ve only flipped through it briefly to check out the pretty pictures, but it looks really cool.)

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, dyeing, surface design Tagged With: thermofax

Previous post: Postpartum depression
Next post: Thermofax triumph!

Comments

  1. Mary Coburn says

    February 28, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    And she’s off….. ROFL

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