How to dye silk tulle from white to off-white

In the course of wedding planning we had a couple DIY projects--strategically chosen to save money but not drive us crazy. One of these was my veil. I wanted something very simple, but for which there were few tutorials online. Generally there are a ton of tutorials on veil-making, but nothing specific enough for me, so I read a whole bunch and adapted them to my purposes.

One issue was the fabric for my veil: silk tulle. I knew I didn't want nylon because that stuff does't do well over time: stiffening and yellowing, hard to iron, and impossible to clean. I would have liked to have worn or adapted my mom's veil, but it was unusable--I wanted something heirloom-quality. So I thought cotton tulle was the solution, but though it wasn't too expensive, it wasn't sheer enough (so people can see your face through it!). Fine, silk, even though it's super expensive.

I found a pretty good price on lovely silk tulle, but it was only available in a blinding white, which I wanted to tone down. I read about dying with tea, but every example I found turned out a product that was varying shades of brown--great for disappearing against skin. Still, all of them mentioned that if you wanted a lighter color, simply dye for less time. So I experimented until I got a finished product I'm happy with, a barely-perceptible toning down of bleached white silk tulle to off-white silk tulle.

Tea-dying is great for when you want a neutral off-white, rather than yellowy like ivory. I highly recommend it if you have a blush dress (mine is not). Here are a couple pictures of what I ended up with. I'm showing a swatch of the original tulle, a tea-dyed strip, and a swatch of ivory tulle (the ivory is a finer tulle that I'm showing for color comparison only). The first picture is just the three swatches and is the best color example, while the second shows them layered on the original to demonstrate how subtle the effect is.

The tulle I worked with was quite firm (as opposed to soft), but it took tea dye very nicely and evenly. You can get it here. Here is the protocol I worked out; I suggest testing it first on a swatch (a small corner of your fabric):

You will need:
- Two bags of black tea
- Two mugs
- A large stockpot
- Plenty of water
- Large measuring cup, or gallon jug
- Timer
- Filed fingernails, no rings
- whatever else you like to drink with tea--sugar, lemon, etc

1. Boil enough water for two cups of tea. Drop a bag of black tea in each mug, and pour the boiling water over each bag--leave about a half-inch of room at the top. Steep for four minutes.

2. While your tea steeps, pour a gallon of room-temperature water into your stockpot, and rinse your swatch under the tap. When the timer is up, remove the tea bags from both mugs, and pour one of the mugs into the pot. Stir until the tea is distributed--you should be able to see the bottom of the pot clearly, but the water will be a medium brown (think Snooki) at room temperature.

3. Put your swatch in the pot for four and a half minutes, agitating gently by hand about once every minute to make sure all the fabric is evenly exposed to the dye. Prep your other mug for drinking.

4. When the time is up, and while your tea cools, remove the swatch from the pot and rinse thoroughly in room-temperature water. Lay your swatch on a flat surface to air-dry, spreading the tulle out so the little holes are circular rather than oval.

5. Assess your color when the swatch is completely dry. If you want to go darker, wet the tulle again before putting it back in the pot, and repeat step 4 as needed (let sit one minute each time). Keep track of the total amount of time the swatch is in the dye.

6. When you have a good color, subtract 30 seconds from your total dye time. Wet the rest of your tulle and repeat steps 3-5 with all your fabric--your initial dye time should be what you just calculated. Drink your tea to calm yourself...it'll look great, don't worry!

Be very careful with the drying process: you want each hole to be about evenly sized, though the center holes will be better than the ones at the edges. If you don't get an evenly-dried product, you can re-wet and -dry, but it's a pain. The swatch will be good practice.

If the neutral color is not what you want, experiment with different additives: green tea, coffee, saffron, etc. Some dyes may need a fixative, like salt or vinegar (now I'm hungry for chips!). You can use salt with tea to get an extra-dark color also.

hosting

I had a lot of fun at our holiday party this year. Generally it's Lindsay's party, but she was generous enough to share the title with Diane and me this year.

Despite having hardly any idea of who was coming (facebook replies were scarce), we ended up having just the right amount of space and just the right amount of food and drink. Possibly too much of drink, really, but there's always the next party to fuel.

I was so happy to see everyone who came, and especially grateful to those who took such time and trouble to get here. With so many people around, we didn't get the time together I wanted, but something is better than nothing, and at least there's the promise of more one-on-one in the near future.

These winter holidays are my favorite time, Thanksgiving turkey to Hanukkah latkes to Mom's birthday cake to Christmas stew, pudding, and steak to New Years cocktails.  Hmmm, maybe it's actually all about the food.

obligatory new years post

Last year was busy. I moved to a new state, started a new job, and applied to four neuroscience programs, to start in the fall. All these changes came with their own problems, but they're going well...I think.

So far I've heard from Columbia for an interview, and from a professor at BU, a heads-up that I'll probably get an interview. The others I haven't heard from yet. Oh well.

Christmas was a lot of fun (no pictures), but we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in 5 different places. We also ate a ton at all those places, including 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners in one day. After all that excitement, we spent a chill night putting together a 500-piece I Spy puzzle. Some of us (not me) wore headlamps to assist in the project.

In the same vein, I rang in the new year by watching the Twilight Zone (apparently Syfy does a marathon every year!) and watching the ball drop. We then woke up at 9:30, the earliest so far on our 2-week NJ vacation.

Then we went for a walk in the institute woods. My family's never been there, and while my dad went to the gym (which he said was full of resolution-makers), my mom, Michelle, Pete, and I spent a glorious day outside.

Michelle wanted a walking stick, so Pete broke one off for her and we stripped it of its damp bark.

Then she wanted another one, I guess as a weapon? Or to balance herself out? The first one was broken too short, but the next was perfect.

She left one at the head of the trail, as is traditional, but took the first one home to sand and polish until safe to hold onto without gloves.

We wanted to round up our walk with some ice cream, but the bent spoon was closed. Halo pub was good enough in a pinch.

I'd love to be back in the area next year.

stranger tides

Lately I've been updating my nails a little more often than I used to. I'm trying to break the old pattern of wearing a color past its prime: when it starts chipping, I start picking at it until it looks truly terrible.

Better to just wipe the slate clean, even if I don't replace it with anything. This time I did! Sunday afternoon I put on a new arrival: OPI Stranger Tides.

And this photo is from 3 days later. Not bad, eh? I love this color, and 3 coats in exchange for this kind of finish and perfect wear is a-ok by me.

I feel a little silly doing a nail post when Lindsay has started an entire blog with posts about color and fancy layering (so fancy!!). Do you do guest posts?

And other news:

• Going to the NC state fair in Raleigh this weekend!
• Applying to grad school
• First trip back to NJ is 10/20-10/23. I don't know that I'll be able to see many people on such a short trip, unfortunately.

Chapel Hill

Pete's mom came to visit us. It was pretty great.

We went hiking:

We ate barbecue and drank sweet tea:

 

It was fun. It's fun here.

first polish review

It's about time, right?

I saw Lindsay and Diane on Saturday, after a month of not at all. So...getting Japanese food, seeing these two, that's all I could ask for. But! It turns out they brought the one thing that could improve on that formula: BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!

One was a set of jellies and jams that I am very much looking forward to trying with croissants from Witherspoon Bread Co or the Little Pastry Chef, depending on whether I'm in the mood for flaky or hearty. I'll put a review of those soon, I'm sure.

For tonight, we have the second present: a bottle of FUNKY DUNKEY, from the OPI Shrek collection. Overall, I wasn't impressed with what I saw of the collection, but I thought this and one other were possibles! When I saw the bottle I gasped--I thought at first it was one of the bottles on my wish list. It looked just perfect. A color I didn't have AND wanted!

I got home and tried it out over CND ridge-filler and under Poshe's fast-drying topcoat. The topcoat, by the way, is fantastic. Super quick dry, cheap, readily available. It has the same issue that all fast-drying topcoats do, though: it starts drying out slightly every time it gets used, so when it's about half empty (or gets thick) I start adding maybe three drops of Seche restore about every other time I use it.

The ridge-filler base coat is awful. I'm really disappointed, since lately I've been picking at my nails and liked CND's stickey (regular base coat), so I wanted to like the ridge-filler. Nope. It feels tackier, doesn't hold as well--lots of chipping, and many polishes don't flow as well over it. Not a great choice for trying out a brand-new polish, but I want to use this damn thing up, and I figure since I'm doing a lot of drill-work, I'm going to redo my nails pretty soon anyway.

So: the polish itself! The application was streaky, and felt, paradoxically, watery on the first coat and very thick and tacky on the second. In general good 2-coat coverage, but because of the streakiness a third coat would not have gone astray. I'm inclined to give this the benefit of the doubt; my arms are slightly shaky from all the work they've been doing, the light wasn't great (though that's not really a factor), I was a bit impatient since it was late, and of course, I used the ridge-filler base. Next time I wear this I'll use stickey and see how it goes.

Because there WILL be a next time. The bottle color is a perfect purple that I didn't have. On the red-based side but slightly muted; mid-tone. It's not as dark (or red) as Pamplona Purple, and it's darker and less creamy than Uptown Girl. Yum, I couldn't wait to see it.

And boy was I surprised. I know polishes dry a bit darker than the bottle, but this is FAR darker. It's still very different from Pamplona Purple, and I'm actually still loving it just as much, even though it didn't turn out as expected. It's a great summer-fall color: intense and different enough for summer, but dark and smokey enough for fall. By the way, this is a picture from Wednesday morning, and I applied the polish Saturday night...and in between I've been doing a lot of handiwork. My right hand is more chipped, but this is still excellent wear, especially considering the inferior basecoat.

You can see the slight streakiness on my pointer that a third coat would have evened out.

This is a GREAT color, guys. Thank you so much: you made my day, and the polish was the least of it. And because I promised Diane:

bubble two

We walked down Mass Row, unchanged except for reinforced and more-visible chains blocking off road traffic, and went to Rocky/Silsby where Corey won round two of our knowing-people game.

The game spontaneously evolved starting when I recognized that Santa-Claus guy with the white tuft of hair on his forehead who was always around Collis, managing or just working the register. I didn't know his name, but he was a burst of familiarity that was very welcome after we peered into One Wheelock and found it terribly disappointing. Round one went to me: recognizing someone. Round two was knowing that person's name. For Corey that was Andrew Samwick, who walked out of Rocky just as we were entering.

Here's Corey posing with a picture of himself. In the picture he's presenting evidence for...something. I forget. I didn't have many memories of Silsby and Rocky...just Humanities lectures freshman year and the financial aid exit interview. I also found my bike outside Silsby junior year a few months after it had been stolen. Soon after that it was re-stolen and I never saw it again. Not to imply anything, of course.

We went to Baker next, and explored it more thoroughly than I ever had as a student. We went into those display rooms just off the entrance, which had all kinds of blueprints and pictures of the library and other buildings. The pictures and plans were from various times, and some of the blueprints had never been put into action.

There were a couple hilarious pictures of the Hop that are clearly from the 70s =)

bubble part one

The bubble continues to exist despite establishing myself outside it. I like that, Katie! Like the tree falling in the woods: I don't have to be in the bubble for it to be there. This is a very good thing, because I can always go back and have it seal around me again, for short amounts of time. This was the first since I graduated.

This is not to say that the place hasn't changed. I'd heard a lot about changes from current students and those that had visited before. I visited most of the places on my list, and some that hadn't been on it.

One of the most different was Thayer dining hall. It was mostly closed down for extensive changes, but the building itself was open, so we walked through what we could. Corey was disappointed at the lack of the FoCo runway: FoCo was totally closed off, being used as storage while other places were being redone.

No more Blend, or Remix, or whatever people don't call it anymore. No more Kitchen Sink for Scott.

Homeplate was still open for the interim students, but not at the hour we were there. Remember the dessert demos? The Sunday Brunch? It wasn't left unscathed, however.

The first feeling I had when I saw the Homeplate seating area was one of space. That's because that elevated step is gone and the half-wall enclosures are gone. No more nooks, booths, cozy feeling. Instead: rigid rows with no personality. A second FoCo.

You may also notice the solid wall on the right side. There is no longer a FoCo-Pavilion-Homeplate circuit. Presumably the Pavilion is still there, but there was no way to get to it with the FoCo doors locked. The recession in the wall is only a couple of doors, possibly restrooms.

This was one of the weirdest things: The stairs leading down from Topside have been walled off. The stairs are still there, I guess, but there's no way to get to them. We later went up the other stairs and found lots of construction. It also turned out that the stairs pictured actually go from nowhere to nowhere. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this whatsoever. It's not like they're taking out the stairs in order to create room: why build the wall in that case?

There were also a couple tanks of helium in the Thayer dining entrance. H-croo was active and probably needed them for whatever they were doing with the crowds of trippers there. Too bad we couldn't play with them.

In a mild state of shock and disappointment, we headed off to other parts of campus.

what was this?

On I-91 in northern Connecticut, we started noticing that there were an awful lot of police vehicles stopped on the side of the road at intervals, lights flashing but no sirens. Sometimes it was just one vehicle, sometimes several (like 6+) all gathered together. This went on for several miles.

Then we saw that at all the entrance ramps, vehicles were blocking traffic from entering. Huge huge delays I'm sure--the lines of cars on the ramps went as far back as we could see (which admittedly wasn't far).

It wasn't just police vehicles. There were ambulances, fire trucks, even an animal control truck. It seemed like every type of official vehicle the towns could spare was there.

FINALLY we saw the convoy: the reason for all those stopped cars. It started off with motorcycles and went on for another mile, all official vehicles, all with lights flashing but no sirens.

Lots and lots of people.

And all kinds of vehicles. The people standing by them were all saluting or looking somber and official.

Finally normal cars followed the convoy. You can see the line of cars waiting at that entrance ramp.

So what could this have been? We speculated: a state official or military official being transported? Why would they have driven on the highway and not flown? The most satisfying answer was that it was a funeral convoy for some important person, but we don't know for sure. Google searches have yielded nothing.

Another weird thing: On the way up we did a little car/people watching. We laughed at strange bumper stickers and when cars or stickers didn't match what we expected the driver to look like. On the way down we spotted someone we had seen on the way up! He was one of the few drivers who looked like what his stickers suggested he should: a young artsy-type...the stickers were about music and music teachers.

picture post

So each one is like a thousand words right? I'll include some extras as explanations. Also: you can click on any of these to see them way bigger.

A double-yolk egg. I got these from the farmers market, and while they don't look particularly orange to me, I totally see the difference when I break open a store-bought one. Anyway, I was pretty happy since the yolk, when runny, is my favorite part.
Extra extra: a site that starts out innocuously enough, with explanations for double yolks. Things quickly get gross, and I'm reminded that eggs come from biological beings.

I took the GRE general test on the 27th and never have to take it again (which is the important part). The building I took it in had an impossible to find elevator—I took the stairs—and a recessed door, which was thankfully not what I was looking for. I mean, really.
Hint: check out the name on the door.

It was my dad's birthday on the 30th, and at Penang that evening Kim asked the waiters to bring a dessert and sing. My mom was skeptical: could these fobs know how to sing happy birthday? I, remembering the birthdays people had in China, knew better. Asian restaurants are the absolute best place to embarrass someone on their birthday.

Lindsay had a GREAT get-together on the 26th of June, and unfortunately a lot of people had to miss it (sorry Charu). She made delicious cupcakes and was, once again, a perfect host.

When Roland and Vicki, my dad's brother and his wife, came to stay for a few days in the beginning of July, I slept in Michelle's room and found a  dire threat waiting for me on the pillow the second night. Needless to say, I removed my face wash and toothbrush from her room RIGHT AWAY. Also, those cut out pieces of paper on the page opposite were used for warning and other notes slipped under doors and carefully signed.

I like my new friends/future housemates in Princeton.

I don't even know this guy's last name (first name Justin), yet I drew a vague Abe Lincoln on his arm in blue glitter glue, just in time for the funeral he went to tonight. Alison the intern (or is it the intern Alison?) finished the job with a fat T-Rex and USA. Come on.

Finally, the tattoo I will probably never get (on my left ankle, if you're curious). It'll just be an outline of the elephant, so ignore the paisley, as awesome as that would be. But you know what would be even awesomer? A Where's Waldo tattoo. TOW all the Waldos.

take a look

My advertisement online, just for comparison.

It's Friday morning, I'm feeling really overloaded and twitchy, so I need to do something stupid. I went to La Jolie at 11:00 to ask for their next available time. I was told 2pm.

The adventure begins with a look of horror from my stylist, Amanda, when I show her what I want. Not the most encouraging start.

I looked like Hitler for a brief moment.

Other stylists and customers got into the action, encouraging and comforting me.

Amanda does photography as a hobby (not really. well, i don't actually know).

Amanda went over every square inch of my head at least three times: length, texture, thinning. She listened and was SO patient with me, and found the best compromises between what I wanted and what my hair type and line would allow...

And here's the result:

Taken with Photo Booth on the iMac I work on. Bonus: this is my office area.

shirts

I kind of like message shirts when they're funny and not moralistic or offensive to anyone. One of the postdocs in our labs has one I really like:

haikus are easy.
but sometimes they don't make sense.
refrigerator.

I recently bought one and wore it for the first time on the 5th of July, which was supposed to be a holiday but was spent working for 11 hours on a grant due the next day. I thought it appropriate for that day.

(topatoco.com)

So today I wore it for the second time...and it's turning out to be an equally bad day! Not much sleep, forgot my mug (so I'll have to pay $1.75 for coffee instead of $.50), keep thinking it's Thursday (so I went to the farmers market and had to do an awkward 180 when I realised it's not), the smelly participant came in today so I could learn that his helmet smells like gym shoes (in addition to his general person smelling like sweat), and I have a foot injury that's 99% probably not something interesting like a fracture (pain no gain). Does the shirt make the day? Does the name make the person?

I'm wearing a T-rex shirt on Saturday for the Dinosaur Comics shirt day thing.

shallow!

me: i wonder what it'll be like not to have loans
Theresa: i think it will feel like back problems and arthritis
               and thinning hair

Nope, not for me! And you'll notice she didn't include wrinkles in that list, because We Believe in Sunscreen.

I'm in quite a good mood today, so this is going to be really shallow. It started with yesterday, hearing funny stories from a new facebook friend (hi John) and having adventures with the new audio system in the scanner. We also watched Return of the Jedi—at least, a little bit of it. I think I'll do Leia-hair again tomorrow!



Speaking of hair, I took a picture of it to post up on that site where you sell your hair. I think I'll sell it and donate it to charity instead of donating it to locks of love. They actually don't turn out many wigs, the wigs often go to kids with alopecia, and I think there are more worthy causes out there. Somehow disasters and diseases, while terrible, don't seem as bad as the pure evil you encounter when people do bad things to other people.

All right, so work ended with me getting free pizza, which was tempered by bits of mushroom, gah. I got home and watched a bit of Best in Show, got a weird call from Max about writing a song (?), and ate toffee (the dry English kind). Also, my mom asked if she could wear my red lipstick. Imitation, people! I like it.

This morning, good mood preserved: I got enough sleep. This was at the expense of getting-ready time, so I had to skip my morning cup of tea. So far it's OK. I went to the summer-fall Princeton farmers market for the first time with Max, intending to get eggs, lunch, and whatever else struck my fancy. Somehow overnight I figured out what he was actually asking me to help with: not casting Oklahoma into a new genre, but writing lyrics to the tune of Oklahoma. The lyrics should be a tribute/roast of his uncle Charles, who I know nothing about, and I don't actually know much of the Oklahoma tune, so I couldn't be much help. But the thing is, Scott and I used to do that sort of thing spontaneously! And that was always really fun, and I thought I was pretty good at it. Anyway, I had a couple ideas about Max's project, and it turns out we think the same way about it, which could be good for working together, or it could mean we just have redundant ideas.

At the market I got my eggs and lunch (a really...TOUGH salad. Is sharp an adjective normally used to describe salads? I'm thinking not, but it was still pretty good.) and peaches! I remembered the warm peaches I picked with the Newbrys in Oregon, and getting pelted with them by Chad and Joe, and how Scott defended me valiantly. Warm peaches are lovely, peach smoothies are lovely, and peach pie is loveliest. I'm still unhappy about the farm stand on Dey Rd in Cranbury that closed down.

To conclude: It is July, and I like seeing the html here, because I used to able to write in it, and now I've forgotten everything but know more about programming in general.

OH DUH

Now that I have a blog, I have somewhere to write about all the stuff I want and have tried and wish I could have. I can unload here instead of in gchat or in my own head. This is a win-win because I AND you just have to see this once. Also, I have a permanent record so I remember this stuff, and if anything I write is helpful, you will enjoy that. That makes it a WIN-WIN or a WIN-win at the very least. The "yous" here are my readers, which I think is only ktr. OK, so it's a WIN-win.

I'll start off with this:



$12.50 at martinandosa.com. Understand: I want the shirt, the lady, and her hair. I've only put the price of the shirt.

Also: the neuro/psych IM soccer team I play on is in 9th place of 10 teams. The only team below us is the brand-new one that joined up a couple weeks ago, woo! To quote Max: the stage for our dramatic ascension is set. The great thing is, he could be talking about our standing in the league OR my fitness level as indicated by butt-pain as I climb the stairs.