Saturday, June 20, 2015

Fabric Painting - Part 2

Well this is a flight of fancy that's completely taken over my sewing time! *smile* However, it's creatively stimulating and stretching me in new directions.  Also it gives me time to figure out exactly what I want to sew next...

First, I bought more paint brushes...  
I found that I needed a thick one to generally apply the dye to the fabric and a thinner one to fill in the borders and smaller spaces ~ basically two paintbrushes per color.  So I've ended up with a collection of new brushes...



I also bought more paint...
Not more shades (well one more pot of green) but a large pot of white paint to mix colors. I also bought a couple fabric markers. Though when I tried one on the fabric I didn't like how it worked. I just liked how the paint using the paintbrush applies to the fabric much better so I won't be using the fabric markers going forward. 



A few things that I've learned/relearned along the way...
Add white to any color and it makes it lighter or more pastel colored. I messed up at the beginning by trying to mix the white into the darker color. Didn't work so well and it takes some trial and error to get the lighter shades I see in my minds eye. So I've ended up with some interesting shades by doing this process.


White with a little blue mixed in

Adding a little more blue to get 
a darker shade of blue

I had to figure out a color "design" for the fabric and make sure that I paint it that way every time...especially since the fabric has a repeat pattern in it.

Mostly this just takes time...alot of time! I'm almost finished painting JUST the back piece, still have the two front pieces and the waistband to paint before I can assemble the skirt. Remarkably enough the dye hasn't changed the hand of the fabric which is good.

A few pictures of the skirt's progress...


Just starting to paint the skirt back

Adding more color...

It's almost finished.  Just need to add a little more 
color so that there aren't quite as many white spaces.

I put a lot of paint on the skirt yesterday. Now it's hanging for 24 hours to dry so that I can see where I want to add the last of the color...plus I need a break. The painting is very detailed and I have to really pay attention to what I'm doing. 

Just wanted to give an update on the fabric painting progress.

...as always more later!




27 comments:

  1. Totally loving the process.

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  2. Love your painting. Can't wait to see the next progress update.

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  3. Even you paper plates are stylish....

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  4. This skirt will be a labour of love that you will cherish

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  5. You are giving the painting the same meticulous attention that you give your sewing, and the results are gorgeous. How will you fix the dye so that it doesn't wash out, or rub off?

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    1. The paint says that you should press the back and then the front to heat set the paint so that's what I'm going to do and hope that it actually works! *LOL*

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  6. It's looking so amazing! The colours are very vibrant. Can't wait to see this one made up.

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  7. I absolutely love this project! Love! Your creative eye is very inspiring. K

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  8. Amazing work. I like that you've left some of the flowers white. A hand-painted dress! Wow!

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    1. Janene - the white flowers are really speaking to me now. I was going to add more paint to them but I think I'm going to leave them alone now. Thanks for appreciating that!

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  9. That's going to be gorgeous when you bring everything together, I can already see it.

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  10. Wonderful! Put a cover on your ironing board when you heat set the fabric. Sometimes the paint can telegraph through. This is looking awesome.

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  11. As always, you do wonderful work. You will have the only skirt like that anywhere. Those Jacquard paints are wonderful, they have such vibrant pigments.

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  12. Wow Carolyn! It's beautiful! I love the colors you chose and how you are placing them on the fabric. It's gorgeous.

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  13. Great job with the fabric painting. I can see how this could be time-consuming but very much worth it. Look forward to seeing the finished fabric andSkirt.

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  14. I have a fabric just begging to be painted, but I'm scurred!!!! I don't want to ruin it... I'll have to think about this for a bit...

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    1. Mimi - paint a sample and see if it will work. That's what I did and it made me decide to go for it. I'm glad I did. I bet you will be too!

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  15. Beyond awesome! This looks like it could become really addictive! Your eye for color placement is magnificent. Creative Hormone Rush

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  16. Wow! Very colourful and oh so pretty!

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  17. It's beautiful! Well worth the effort

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  18. That looks fantastic,and I bet it is fun to do too. It shows you really "know" colour theory.......so were you taught or is it a natural talent? I don't have it and have to think a lot about how to do colour sometimes in clothes but more often in the garden. My plan that the garden looks like seed packets were thrown all over it is sometimes successful but can be a huge disaster.

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    1. I did have to take some color and color theory classes when I was in college. So there is definitely some training in there.

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