It's been a while since my last update and that is due in large part to the skirt dyeing process, which is taking longer than anticipated and more effort as well. In order to speed up the process, I took on the job of dyeing the indigo skirts which amounted to over 50 skirts at my home studio. The charcoal skirts were sent up to the dye house in Charlottesville as mentioned in one of my previous updates. The process involves mixing and tending to the indigo vat, prepping dip-dye skirts, dyeing, drying, rinsing, drying, rinsing with a dye set solution, rinsing again, drying, rinsing with a dye inactivation agent to remove any excess dye particles that might still be active, rinsing again, drying, rinsing again, and drying. The rinsing and dye setting portion is what is taking the longest on our end. After that they must be ironed, folded, and labeled before they are ready to package and ship out. It's been a long process and you can rest easy knowing each dyed skirt was made with love. :)
Thus far I have about 90% of the indigo dip-dye and indigo solid dye skirts dyed, set, and am in the process of ironing and packaging them for shipment. We sent out a shipment of dip-dyed skirts last week, and have a batch of solid indigo skirts packaged to go out today. We are shipping them out in batches of 25 skirts and you will receive a shipping notification when your reward has shipped out. The charcoal skirts seem to take the longest as they are having to soak the skirts in the dye vat instead of just dipping them. A portion of the charcoal skirts have been dyed at this point. As of yet, the dye house hasn't been able to give me a date when they will be finished with the charcoal skirts -- as soon I have more information I'll be sharing it!