What a difference a packet of dye makes! One session in the washing machine with half a kilo of salt and the jacket now has the patina of something between oil reflecting on water and that titanium jewellery which was very popular in the eighties (made from stainless steel with an electric current through to make wonderful, unexpected, rainbow-like colours?)..honestly, you couldn’t replicate this if you tried..I and absolutely love it!

 

It’s bluer than these photos..and the alterations were surprisingly simple – I took out the zip, took off the blouson cuffs and removed all the velcro square buttons.  Then removed all the elastic out of the waistband and ironed it flat.  I’ve got some black binding just to tidy up the sleeves, that job has yet to be done.  And I also want to add a tie fastening three quarters of the way down..

 

The one draw back of the dye process was it exposed some small holes in the cotton, exposing the white of the filling.  There were four particularly prominent ones on the bottom of the shawl collar..so I’ve started doing some hand quilting in the style of the Kantha quilts of India, in vertical lines but with random spacing.  If I had the time and the patience I would quilt the whole coat with all sorts of patterns..but I want to wear it!

It’s thrilling to think that from this reject, my butterfly was born..

Laters, Kate x