Playsilks and Dye Fun

I've been wanting to get Aurora some playsilks for months now (since just before her birthday) but couldn't justify the cost of buying them from someone despite how much I knew she'd love them - I thought about buying fabric to make some but the thought of hemming them all put me off. A blogger I follow reminded me that I could do it myself by posting about her homemade playsilks.

Dharma trading to the rescue with undyed silks and silk hankies and I got to use some of my enormous kool-aid stash.

Picking colours. All my kool-aid bagged by colour.

 

I dyed 10 30x30" silks, 12 hankies (a 30x30 silk and a hanky of the same colour and then I tie-dyed the two extra hankies) and then two longer silk scarves.

I thought about having Aurora help me but because of the boiling water I decided that I'd surprise her with them after a nap.

I dumped the whole bucket of them on her lap to see what she'd do.

Playing dress-up.

I had a lot of fun doing this and I'd love to get more. I have a ridiculous stash of kool-aid and it would be fun to use some of the colours I didn't get a chance to use this time.
They've gone through the wash once (cold water and handwash cycle) and besides one colour not being quite set and running a bit (damn), the colours are still just as bright.
The kids at MG love them too.

A bit of woodwork!

I've had this pattern for a helping tower bookmarked for ages. It seem like the perfect thing to have in the kitchen - especially when just pulling up a chair isn't possible or practical. Before we built one of these things we did try the chair route but our chairs have a slight slope backwards that was always putting Aurora off balance. We also have a gate up across the kitchen so dragging chairs in was always a but of a hassle.

We ran into a few hiccups with imperial vs metric lumber sizes but managed to find what we needed and I asked if my FIL would be able to help with the sawing and tool using side of things.

All the wood ready to go!

My FIL cut all the pieces (minus the arches and curved support bits) the day before and then I went over around midday and we got to work. It took about 8ish hours to get it all built but I'm sure someone with more woodworking experience would be able to get it done quicker (unbeknownst to me FIL had never done any sort of woodworking before).

The next day I set to work filling holes and sanding everything and then put a few coats of primer on before putting the colour on.

Trying it out before it gets sanded and painted.

Holes filled and a few coats of primer!

Last coat drying in the sun!

I'm absolutely thrilled with how it turned out and I know we'll be using it for years to come. Aurora is pretty thrilled with it too.

Yay! (She's standing on a towel so she doesn't slip on the water)