Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / All blog posts / A new wardrobe!
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September 26, 2016 by Tien Chiu

A new wardrobe!

I needed some new clothes, so I spent this weekend puttering in the dyepots. I dyed 17 articles of clothing: six T-shirts, four blouses, four button-down shirts, a ruana/poncho, an open jacket, and – shockingly – an actual dress! I haven’t worn a dress (except my wedding dress) in at least twenty years. That’s because the dress code for Silicon Valley engineering departments is jeans-only; I found out very early in my career that anything young, female, and in skirts was immediately dismissed as unimportant.

However, having left high-tech, I decided that it might be fun to experiment with radical wardrobe changes (ooh, cross-dressing!), so I scrunch-dyed this lovely dress in emerald green, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, and a hint of turquoise. I love it! And I may actually wear it. Friends: try not to faint when you see me. 🙂

tie-dyed sleeveless dress
tie-dyed sleeveless dress

Here are the nicer T-shirts:

tie-dyed T-shirt

ice dyed tie-dye T-shirt
ice dyed tie-dye T-shirt

spiral tie-dye T-shirt

ice dyed spiral T-shirt
ice dyed spiral T-shirt

green and blue tie-dyed shirt

And the light jackets:

"Waterfall jacket" from Dharma Trading Company
“Waterfall jacket” from Dharma Trading Company
Ruana/poncho, scrunch dyed
Ruana/poncho, scrunch dyed

And two of the simple blouses. These were meant to provide a boring background for more decorative/dramatic jackets and shawls. I had intended to dye them evenly, but there was a little bit of variation in color. I love it! The slight variation gives them more visual interest than a truly solid color.

immersion dyed blouses
immersion dyed blouses

And now I have a new wardrobe! Just in time, too – I’m leaving next Monday to go traveling, both on family business and to attend the American Craft Council’s “Present Tense” conference in Omaha, NE.

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, dyeing Tagged With: tie-dye

Previous post: Scarf commission!
Next post: Scarf samples

Comments

  1. Carmen says

    September 26, 2016 at 10:04 pm

    Love your new wardrobe! Gorgeous!

  2. Liz MacGibbon says

    September 27, 2016 at 12:37 am

    Love the blue/green/turquoise colourway. Like my latest attempt at ab “art yarn”.

  3. Barbara Zuiderent says

    September 27, 2016 at 7:51 am

    I just started ice -dyeing and I also tried my hand at tie-dyeing. I love it and these pieces are a great inspiration to make something for me and not just for my shop! Thanks.

  4. Janet Colville says

    September 29, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    So when you come to Boulder…I wear a Large…blue, green, purple…hand-me-downs accepted! I love tie-die…never did any but wear it (am wearing it now). You do a great job.

    • Tien Chiu says

      September 30, 2016 at 8:02 pm

      LOL! Sadly, I’m an XL, so I don’t have any T-shirts in your size! Or I’d certainly bring you one…I have plenty, as you might guess. 🙂

      [WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

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