fabric from Africa

[ninifav]

I have a DD who works for the CDC and recently returned from Mali, Africa. She brought me 36 yds of fabric!! Beautiful colors. I imagine that the material is hand dyed and most has a waxy coating...not sure how to handle it. One suggestion was to iron it over a paper bag before washing and hanging to dry...
Have no idea of what I'm going to do with it...for now, it is sitting out and I'm just admiring it!!
She is in North Vietnam this week and will try to get me some material from there..
Am I lucky or what!!!

[Mom of Six]

Am I lucky or what!!!

VERY!!!!
I told my DD to bring some fabric back from Singapore or Japan when she went last year & she forgot!!!!

[DorothyL]

What a wonderful daughter. Think of all the exotic sewing you will be doing. maybe Smilie will show up and give hints how to pretreat the African fabric since she just had a similar sewing adventure herself.
dorothy

[MartySews2]

That's wonderful, Paula. Have fun with it.
Marty

[lendube]

That'll be fun. Summer tops, flow-ey skirts, etc. Evening apparel. I can see it now. Be sure and show us some.

[SmilieFace]

Lucky you!

I have fabric from both Ghana (West Africa) and Rwanda (East Africa). I machine wash on gentle cycle in cold water and hang dry. I iron with an iron shoe on the iron. Good luck! Can't wait to see pictures!

[vickki]

You are so lucky....

[bridesmom]

Oh man, am I green with envy or what! Can't wait to see what you decide to do with it! Don't be like me and try to save it, mine ended up all falling apart, I left it for a few years and it started to deteriorate, the designs in the fabric had been bleached!!! Oh well, it was pretty to look at for a while.

[ninifav]

Okay, what is an "iron shoe??"...

[lendube]

If you'll excuse me, Smilie, please. Here in this link it's called an Iron Glide. It's usually a teflon plate that attaches to the bottom of steel plated irons. My mom used one for years and I'd like to order one for my Rowenta.

http://www.clotilde.com/list.html?criteria=iron+cover