I Painted Today...

A couple of months ago, I purchased this very pretty wool doubleknit from Metro Textiles. LindseyT purchased some of the same fabric and made this amazing military jacket from it. After reading about her jacket and viewing the pretty pictures, that red doubleknit came roaring back into my mind...proclaiming quite loudly that IT wanted to be used this weekend.

Now I had plans to use the $1 a yd. fabric from Fabric Mart...purchased to make that great vintage pattern and some components this weekend. That was my plan right up until I saw that jacket...*sigh* But the red doubleknit was all I could think of all day long yesterday...so I gave in. I know what pattern I want to use with the fabric...I just didn't have any red lining material.

I thought since I was leaving work around 3 pm that I could swing by the garment district and pick up a couple of yards for this outfit...however, after a couple of hours at work, I just didn't feel like going to the garment district! So what to do, what to do! I remembered that I had a beautiful black and white paisley printed silk charmeuse in the collection...maybe that would work.

Well I got home and looked at the silk with the doubleknit...nah, no good! But if it had just a little bit of red in the background, it would be fantastic! The wheels started to turn...I went to check my notions stash...and I found my painting supplies. I have an entire collection of fabric paints, fabric markers and stamps from the Dana Marie Design Co. formerly known as Purrfection.

So here is the fabric in its "before" state:

And here it is in it's "after" state, hanging over the shower rod curing for its 24 hours before pressing and cutting:

Now how did I accomplish this? First I covered my cutting table with an old twin sheet so that none of the ink would add any MORE stains to my cutting table!!!

Second, I used two types of red paint from Pelle's, Bright Red and Magenta, and a fine point red fabric marker.

Originally I was going to use a stamp in some of the white areas and actually stamped the fabric 2 or 3 times near one end

But I didn't really like the effect. Just filling in the design with the two paints and the fabric marker worked so much better. It took about five-six hours to complete...because I would paint an area, allow it to take (approximately an hour) and then move it and work on another area. After the second move, I got into a rhythm knowing which pieces to fill in first and which ones last. It was a very soothing and relaxing process.

So now I have custom made lining fabric specially designed to go with the red doubleknit. I will move onto cutting out the pattern pieces and working on the garments...but if I don't get a single item finished this weekend, I feel like I have achieved something great. I made my own lining!