Before you read any further, this post is about stripping DYE from fabric!
Trillium Snow in the snow.
I just had a fun adventure with my first dye-stripping experience. I sent Pavo Textiles Trillium Halo to my friend Sarah at Blake’s BabyWearing Blog for a new look!
Pavo Trillium Halo before stripping.
Sarah did an AMAZING job, y’all! I sent Halo with some of the supplies I had purchased when I foolishly thought I would undertake this project myself (hahaha!), and Sarah got it started right away, sending updates throughout the process. She assured me that she would take all of the recommended safety precautions (as a chemist, I was concerned about chemical exposure), and that she follows the instructions exactly, so the results would be very even.
Trillium Halo enters the pot!Trillium Halo turned purple when the stripping began!
Halo is a light aqua color, and it unexpectedly turned purple when the stripping chemicals began working. I am so thankful that Sarah sent so many pics – it was great to feel like I was part of the process from afar. You never really know exactly how stripping will affect a color, so I was thrilled when she told me it was getting all the way white! Sarah was able to wash, dry, and steam iron it by the next day – her turnaround time was incredible! She shipped super fast, and Trillium Snow arrived exactly when expected, and even more wonderfully snowy white than I was expecting! If you’re thinking of stripping a wrap, Sarah is available through her blog and Facebook page, and her results are impeccable!
Trillium Snow is everything I was hoping for!Trillium Snow giving a shiny bum shot.
I had the pleasure of hosting not one, but TWO wraps from Rhockett Weaving‘s beautiful Nox warp…Noxes (like foxes, right?).
Rhockett Weaving Nox in hand-dyed milk/bamboo weft (top) and doubled SilverSpun weft (bottom).
I am not sure how many wefts Rhonda wove with the Nox warp, but I hosted a hand-dyed milk/bamboo weft (see photo top), and a doubled SilverSpun weft (see photo, bottom). I was especially excited because these are fibers I have never tried before, and they definitely had a noticable effect on Nox’s feel and wrap qualities.
Hand-dyed milk/bamboo weft
This milk/bamboo weft was hand-dyed by Ball Up and Dye in purple, teal, black, and maroon, but the maroon didn’t really come through after weaving so the colors are nicely cooler toned. The most striking thing about this wrap was the weight in hand – it felt heavy, very drapey, and blankety, but not dense at all. Since this was my first try with a milk/bamboo weft, I am not sure if that is the usual feel, but it was extremely pleasurable to handle this wrap. In multi-layer carries, the passes glided nicely and then stuck in place very well, so it was pretty easy to get a nice secure wrap job.
Nox with a Hand-dyed milk/bamboo weft slid right into place and was very comfortable for both of us!
Once wrapped, there was little-to-no sagging, even with a vigorously bouncing LittlerHill on the way to school! Milk/bamboo Nox was very cushy on my shoulders even with a big dude on the back. As I find is common with handwoven wraps, they are thin/thinnish in hand and easy to wrap with, and then surprisingly cushy and supportive. Milk/bamboo Nox is an excellent example of this phenomenon!
SilverSpun Weft
I have been wanting to try SilverSpun since I first heard about it a few months ago because…silver! This weft is a combination of cotton, SILVER, and nylon. I am not quite sure about the details of the fiber, but I know that it is difficult to obtain, and what was used in Nox was thin and so was doubled up – it worked! SilverSpun Nox is incredible! It’s slightly longer than milk/bamboo Nox, but definitely felt noticeably lighter and thinner in hand. In a multi-layer carry, the thinness and texture allowed the passes to glide very easily over each other. SilverSpun Nox has slightly less grip than milk/bamboo Nox, which made it a lot easier to tighten my carry well, but necessitated a bit more careful wrapping as the passes didn’t stick in place when I let go.
Nox with a SilverSpun weft was so glamorous!
Once wrapped, I felt glamorous AF – carrying LittlerHill around in woven silver sounds like something reserved for fictional royalty! This weft also satiated my cravings for monochrome – it is a beautiful combination of greys and black. I noticed a small amount of sag as we walked to school – no where near enough to warrant retightening, but I noted that for the next time I need to be more conscious of the slipperiness (probably due to the nylon content), and to be a little more careful about getting a tight carry. SilverSpun Nox gave more than enough support with our bunchy rushed wrap job, and was also comfortable on my picky shoulders.
SilverSpun Nox supported a big kiddo even with a sloppy wrap job.
The differences between milk/bamboo and SilverSpun weft Noxes are very subtle – both wraps are beautifully woven, magically thin and drapey, and very supportive for my big LittlerHill. I feel so lucky to have been able to host these wraps concurrently, it was a lot of fun to make comparisons. I hope that Rhockett Weaving will continue to weave with more unusual weft fiber choices like Nox (although I am aware that no more SilverSpun is currently available), and I will hopefully have a chance to try some in the future!
Rhockett Weaving Nox with SilverSpun weft (top) and hand-dyed milk/bamboo weft (bottom).
Emmeline Textiles in-house dyed Partita no. 6, Sorbet.
I have been a fan of Emmeline Textiles since I first laid eyes on their dyed wraps in a babywearing Facebook group. I rarely see dyed wraps that catch my attention, but wraps that are dyed by Ali at ET are like no others – the dye jobs are vibrant, the colors are beautifully complementary, and they look absolutely flawless! The first dyed ET wraps I saw were Eleanore Pearls in some blue and blue-green grads – I will (hopefully) review and ET EP in the future. One great thing that I love about ET is that they weave so many undyed wraps! Each ET wrap that is dyed in-house is unique, so it has not been easy to get my hands on one…until now!
I received Sorbet, that is a pink to orange color gradation on a Partita no. 6 that was dyed in-house by the fabulous Ali at Emmeline Textiles. It is actually a size 3, not a size 4 as was listed on their website (they alerted me to the true size), but that was cool with me because I am basically doing the same carries with both sizes at this point – my toddler is huge! My first impression when I took it out of the box was that it glows, even in my dark apartment at night. I could tell that this dyed wrap was going to be special.
Emmeline Textiles Sorbet arrive in this very cute packaging. Even at night, the colors were striking.
Since in-house dyed wraps from ET come washed and ready to wear, we tried our first ups as soon as possible! Size 3 is Base-3 for us, so we first tried Kangaroo carry to have some milk on the way to dinner. The moldability impressed me right away especially before it’s been broken in, and Sorbet was super supportive with my giant guy, even in a single pass carry. Believe me when I say that that is quite a feat! We tied a double knot in the tiptails, and Partita no. 6 was up to the task – there was no slipping, and the whole carry was super solid.
Sorbet was very supportive in a single layer carry for some milk before dinner.
Sorbet must have been super comfortable for LittlerHill too, because the next morning he did not want to go in any other wrap for our walk to preschool! When I reached for a longer monochrome wrap, he said “Not THAT one! I want the ORANGE one!” and so it went…I have been hiding Sorbet from him in order to use any of my other wraps ever since!!
The first time LittlerHill has ever demanded a specific wrap, it was Sorbet!
We tried a Shepherd’s carry, which hasn’t previously been one of my favorite carries, but I want to learn to love it and this wrap was up to the task. The two-passes were super comfy and supportive with my big guy, and he seemed to really be able to relax and chill out on my back while we walked to preschool. Partita no. 6 is a modified herringbone pattern that gives the wrap the perfect amount of an even microtexture to allow the passes to slide and then stick right in place so it was almost like Sorbet wrapped itself in this carry.
This pink-to-orange gradation glows in indoor NYC-apartment lighting!
Lastly, I tried a simple ruck tied in front (Ruck TIF) for a trip into the NYC subway, and – I kid you not – with just a single knot the carry felt very secure (*safety disclaimer: you should always tie a double knot to finish any carry with a woven wrap*). LittlerHill was in one of his bouncier moods, which usually requires a longer wrap tied with two leg passes, as in Wendy’s Double Hammock, but Sorbet in a ruck did better than I would have expected! My wrap job stayed very solid through the bouncing, wiggling, leaning, stairs, stairs, more stairs, and even a short wrapee-standing-up-while-wrapped episode when I took a seat on the C train (ahh…toddler wearing in the city, at its best). Every time I wrap with Sorbet I like it even more.
Sorbet’s single knot looked delicious and didn’t feel like it would budge.
The sturdy softness (and arriving ready to wear) combined with a superb one-of-a-kind dye job have made Sorbet one of my favorite wraps already! I can’t wait to try more from Emmeline Textiles, and I hope that a few more of Ali’s dyed wraps will make their way to us for a visit.
Ruck for the subway – a single pass carry with a huge toddler, and brilliant colors for fall.
line: Partita no. 6 (dyed Sorbet – a pink to orange grad)
size: 3 (3.2-3.3 m from ET website)
width: 63 cm (25 in)
soft tape in hand: 3.42 m
blend: 100% cotton
wrappee: 30+ lbs of toddler
carries tried: Ruck tied in front (Ruck TIF), Kangaroo, Shepherd’s carry
wrap qualities: new wrapper friendly, medium thickness, medium density, good recoil, supportive, cushy, not diggy, moderately grippy, bouncey, very moldable, toddler worthy for single pass carries, ace bandagey, solid, microtextured, probably squish worthy once broken in, pleats itself, passes glide easily enough for multipass carries
