My name is Shelagh (sounds like Shay-la) and I am a natural dyer and textile artist. Stuart Moores Textiles is my business which I named after my great-grandfather. I specialize in creating naturally dyed embroidery flosses, fabrics, and knitting yarns.
What makes SMT so special is that after many years of research and experimentation I was able to create a wide range of natural colors using only the most colorfast and washfast natural dyes. I love historical textiles and am a textile craft obsessive. I got my undergraduate degree in textile design and went on to get a two year horticulture certificate after university.
I started natural dyeing in college but got really into it as a horticulture student when I started growing my own dyes. I had a dream to start Stuart Moores Textiles as a natural dye company many years ago but I didn’t know if it was possible. It's possible to get a wide range of color from many different natural dyes, but not all natural dyes are colorfast or wash fast. Natural dyeing takes a lot of time and I couldn’t spend all of that time creating a product and then have the color disappear because someone left it next to a window for a week. I wanted to offer a wide range of colors also, which is tricky if you are only working with ten to fifteen dyes, so I spent a good five years researching historical natural dyes and natural dye processes that have stood the test of time. With those in mind, I went to work creating the recipes for a range of colors that were all washfast and light fast. It took a really long time but in the end, I am quite happy with the range of colors I am able to extract. I also love turning all of my naturally dyed flosses and fabric into craft projects and sharing them with the world. I love my job!
| Workshop Name | Category | Date | Time | Fee | |
| Historical Stitches: Intro to Wool Embroidery with SMT Plant Dyed Wool Floss | Needlework | 10/21/2023 | 10:00 am - 5:00 pm | 125.00 | MORE INFO |