When I saw an indigo-dyed cotton at the Mill End Store, I liked it a lot.  This fabric is an ikat (say "EEE-kat"), which is a textile art I find fascinating.  The basic design is as follows: the warp threads are arranged in stripes of solid color (black or deep indigo) and stripes of resist-dyed yarns.  (Or maybe they're dip-dyed; I can't know for sure how they dyed them.)  The dyed threads are dark blue and pale gray, and the gray spots alternate.  The weft threads are both a solid color and a smaller diameter than the warp threads, so the warp-pattern really pops. 

So what'll I do with it?  I decide to make another shirt for my brother!  I mean, the one I just made him won't fill the box for shipping, so I might as well make another and fill the box!  I wouldn't want to waste my shipping money!  ;) 

Today, I want to talk about ikat fabric, because I find it fascinating.  Ikat (say "EEE-kat") is a yarn-dyed fabric where the yarns are selectively resist dyed before weaving, and the pattern emerges once woven.  Some pictures in this post are from Wikimedia Commons (click to see their sourcepages).  The ones that don't go to Wikimedia Commons are my own pictures. 

Wow... so I'm a terrible sister.  I draped this skirt for my sis in January 2018, and haven't done anything since then (yes, over a year)!  Sometimes I  find myself with half-finished projects which I want to have done, more than I want to do them!  Terrible. 

However, as it's been a while since I posted, let me show you the in-progress pictures and explain what I did.  Normally, I switch to present tense for the project diary, but this project was so long ago, and the way I did it is not how I would do it today, so I'll stick to past tense. 

Let's talk about the properties of linen, since I've been sewing with it lately! 

If you want to read about the dress pattern or construction, here are the links:
Advance 4914, view 2, PATTERN
Advance 4914, view 2, CONSTRUCTION