Silk length to match skirt

It is often said that things come in threes. Well, in the case of my being requested to dye fabric for people, this is definitely a proven fact. Last week it was the silk georgette for bridesmaids. This week it was fabric to match a purchased silk skirt that was difficult to match with a top; and next week will be overdyeing an existing garment.
For this week's fabric blended colours had been decided. I bunched the fabric, poured over orange, blue and purple dyes all laced with the appropriate fixing chemicals, and left it overnight. Next day I felt the resulting colours were too strong, so reduced their depth of colour with discharge. This always produces a more subtle blend of colours and usually some nice surprises.
I then decided to add a repeat motif of dots to tone with the skirt. The fabric was laid out on my printing table and I used my 'no frills' plumb line to centre the repeats. My plumb line consists of two river stones each in plastic bags tied to the ends of a long piece of string. This drapes over the table and tensions itself. I have two plumb lines and together they work well to line up patterns.
I wanted to space the dots 20cm apart and gauged this with a strip of paper. The registrations were marked with small pieces of stick-on paper. I then eye-balled each dot into the space between the paper markings.
The fabric was then cold-batched and washed.

Fabric bunched, saturated with dye, and left to cold batch

Cold batched piece washed, discharged and washed again

Plumb lines, paper gauge and stick-on papers

Dots painted inbetween stick-on papers

The completed fabric next to the skirt

Next Blog: Over-dyeing an existing garment