Fabrics for Valentine's Day

With my duo of romantically inclined stamp sets on sale for Valentine's Day, I have been doing some experiments, using stamps with red fabric dye, color magnet, red fabric paint, and deColourant. Both the Color Magnet and deColourant are fairly new, gel-like, products for use in fabric arts.

This little swatch was created using my "Kitchen Window" stamp set which was inspired by spongeware pottery. I thought a bouquet of roses would be appropriate for the holiday! The rose was stamped using the Color Magnet, which attracts more color in the dye bath. Then, after dying and drying, I used the deColourant to remove color. I love the texture that stamping with the dColourant  added. It really brought the spongeware pottery look back into the design in a way I was not able to achieve with fabric paint.

I stumbled upon deColourant while experimenting with stamping with bleach to remove color from fabric. The main problem with bleach is that, even after washing, you have to combat the bleaching action in some way because the bleach will eventually eat right through your fabric. Bleach just keeps on bleaching until there is nothing there and washing with soap and water is not enough! You need to use either hydrogen peroxide or this chemical known as Anti-Chlor. I like to try to keep the chemicals and various product purchases to a minimum, plus I've done some tests comparing the bleach (I used dishwashing bleach gel) and the deColourant and I am seeing better results with the deColourant. It does have a strange smell, as does bleach, but it can be easily rinsed away afterwards. 

Another little swatch, this time with the Color Magnet and then a darker shade of fabric paint. On the blank fabric swatch, it was a little hard to see where I had stamped before and where to stamp next. The Color Magnet is tinted yellow but my fabric was a fairly deep ivory so it did not show very well. However, I think this ended up working in my favor because it loosened the design up a bit. I cared less about precision and more about process and discovery. Of course, once I dyed the swatch, it was easy to see what had been stamped and positioning the stamps with the fabric paint was a breeze!

This is my favorite. So simple and sweet. I used just one stamp from the "Hippie Chick" stamp set. First, I used the back of the stamp, which is a perfect polka dot, to stamp with the Color Magnet. After dying, I turned the stamp back over and printed with the red fabric paint and then again using the deColourant. 

This print uses just the deColourant and the red fabric paint. Both the Color Magnet and deColourant have a very thin consistency. Much more thin than fabric paint. I was afraid that stamping would not be possible, but I think you can see that the details in the stamps held up quite well!

I'm very happy with the results. Somehow the prints look more vintage than when using only fabric paint on solid colored, commercially dyed fabric. I can't wait to try more!

But first I want to see if I can make something

really nice with these Valentine's Day swatches!

Fashion Wanderings

One benefit of living in the city is that I can observe the summer fashion trends and give Frankie her much needed exercise, all at the same time!

For new readers, one-time readers, and those who have simply forgotten; this is Frankie!

And what I am seeing in the windows of small Brooklyn boutiques is very loosely fitted clothing...

...showcasing ethnic prints. 

Lots of spaghetti straps and gathers. Here we have a short tired dress with an American Indian influence.

This is from a larger national chain in my neighborhood, Lucky Brand. Same loose fit featuring a delicate cotton print from India.

So much reflection on this window, but I hope you can see the interesting use of the striped fabric in this loose fitting dress!

More very loose tops with flowing maxi shirts.

Another gathered neckline. The high/lo hems are also very popular!

The easy breezy summer of 2014!

Kitchen Backsplash Challenge

Time for more interior decorating! Of course I would love to completely renovate my kitchen. New layout, new cabinets, new appliances. However, as we all know, this costs a small fortune. While I am saving up, I need to find ways to work with what I've got. Before moving in, I had the kitchen painted in this beautiful Anjou Pear color with a high gloss sheen. The kitchen has no real backsplash and the gloss sheen is better than a matte finish for wiping up splashes and cooking grease. Still, isn't there something sort of bland and unfocused about my kitchen, pictured above? Sorry the pictures will be dark because I have no natural lighting (windows) anywhere near the area! 

I had considered putting in a tiled backsplash just over the sink but ran into this problem with the cabinet configuration. The cabinets that drop down on either side (which I hate) of the cabinet directly over the sink have this molding edge on the bottom which cuts into the area suitable for tiling. I just couldn't come up with a way to configure the tile in this unfortunate situation. I needed something that could slip in between that cabinet molding and the wall. I considered a sheet of stainless steel or decorative ceiling tin tiles, but even these could be too thick, plus they were more costly and permanent than I wanted, considering I have a dream of totally redoing the whole thing in a couple of years (fingers crossed!).

While creating patterns for my Spoonflower shop, I became interested in one of their newer products: printed decals. It dawned on me that this could be a great wipeable, decorative, and fabulously temporary solution to my backsplash-challenged kitchen sink. I ordered a small sample and liked the feel of it (quite similar to fabric, actually) and how easy it was to peel and stick!

Of course, I had to put some real creative thought into this because the area above my sink, where I wanted to create the backsplash, is approximately 24" wide by 20" high. I would have to purchase a 30" x 30" piece, which is the largest size they offer. A rather small investment but at $30 it was too much to make a mistake! It had to look really snazzy and beautiful.  

For design inspiration, I pinned a lot of tile samples on my Pinterest tile board. I've been somewhat obsessed with cement tile and although I love the traditional Spanish Mission look, I've become increasingly attracted to the more modern choices. These became my kitchen decal inspiration! Bold color, simple shapes. Classically modern.

I found a similarity of style in one of my favorite patterns which makes use of motifs from my "Modern Flowers" stamp set. I chose colors that I thought would work with my collectable kitchen ceramics which are visible through the glass doors of the cabinet above the sink.

It only took about a week to receive my decal after ordering. The decals come trimmed to size on a sheet of paper.  To peel off of the paper, you simply lift up a corner from the trim line.  

The design is extended beyond the trimmed edge (this is called a bleed) with guidelines for easy measuring should you need to trim to a smaller size, as I did.

After trimming I simply taped the decal in position, still attached to it's paper backing, to the wall. My measurement was not an even 20", so I put the edge with the little extra up under the cabinet overhang where it is not really visible. This is how you would deal with an extra, odd piece of tile if you were installing a tile backsplash.

The directions said to start at the top and I'm sure that is normally advisable. However, I started at the bottom because that edge would be the more critical or visible edge of my decal. I had to be sure that edge was perfectly even with the marble edge of the countertop. I was also working alone, with only two hands, and taking photos along the way! I decided to peel up the bottom of the decal and tape it to the upper part so that I could trim that lower part of the paper off.

And there I go: camera in one hand, scissors in the other! Once that paper was off, I smoothed that bottom edge of the decal against the wall. So far, so good.

Then, I trimmed a corner.

And then I smoothed that corner in place. I had no problem at all slipping the sticky decal between cabinet and wall! Yay! I repeated the trimming and smoothing on the other corner along with the whole upper part of the decal. 

All done!

So, then I had a nice decorative focal point, leading from the sink up to the glass doored cabinet above  which showcases my hodgepodge of collectables. Still, I thought the space looked a little empty. The focal point needed a focal point!

Hmm, yes, I had been wondering where I was going to display one of my favorite, though wacky, possessions! Perfect opportunity! But now there was the challenge of how to attach a metal tray to the wall......

I remembered I had these damage-free picture hanging tapes that I never really had the need to use. Once again, perfect opportunity! Following the directions, I placed one side of the tape on the decal on my wall and one on the back of my cherished Orange Crush tray.

I lined up the tape on the tray with the tape on the wall and pressed together. How easy! This whole project was wonderfully easy.

I step back and admire my work!

The surface of the decal is indeed wipeable but it is also fairly easily scratched. Be sure to handle the decals carefully and don't wipe them with anything that would cause a scratch. The decals come in 5" x 5", 15" x 15", and 30" x 30". I would recommend ordering a small sample (5" x 5")for color testing and to see how they look and feel before putting the money into a big piece for a larger project. Because of Spoonflower's decal option, I have sized my recent group of prints to be 5" repeats so they will fit evenly into any of the three sizes. The decals can be repositioned and reused a limited number of times (eventually they will lose their  stickiness), so save the backing paper (similar to freezer paper) for storage and transporting. In other words, once I reach my kitchen renovation funding goal, I can remove this backsplash and use it somewhere else! How great is that?

Peace by Piece

Living in limbo, feeling my future is so uncertain, I desperately needed a pleasurable project to keep my mind from spinning out of control. I've been suffering lately from the inability to sink my teeth into a long-term design, printing, or sewing project because of the frequent spurts of panic and activity surrounding this much anticipated move to Brooklyn which I would have loved to have completed two months ago! Not to mention the fact that most of my supplies are already packed and in storage. Do you feel my frustration and anxiety?

Then I saw this book, miraculously left on a bookshelf so that things would not look so empty while my apartment was being shown to prospective buyers. 

About a year ago I hand-printed and dyed several yards of fabric for a baby or crib quilt. The plan was to collaborate with a quilter on etsy so that I could have a very special and higher priced item to sell (hopefully!) in my shop. However, after going through the long and involved (although enjoyable!) printing process, I found out that this was against etsy rules! From their point of view, even though I printed the fabric, the quilter would be the maker of the actual item, so it would have to be sold in her shop rather than mine. Of course, I thought this was very unfair, but what was I to do? Somehow I did not feel capable of (especially after hand-printing all that fabric) approaching the elaborate task of making the quilt myself. In fact, I had no idea how to do it! Then, few months ago, I found this book on Amazon (actually they most likely recommended it to me based on my shopping habits) and I thought....hmmm...well, why not? But those plans and dreams got lost in the shuffle until I spied "The Practical Guide to Patchwork", on the shelf, just the other night.

Another stroke of luck had my happy supply of fabrics near the surface of the already-packed fabric box! I selected a quilt project from the "Beginners" section of my book. This quilt is called "Snapshots" and is made up of 2" x 2" printed squares alternating with 2" x 2" solid fabric squares. First step is to cut strips  that are 2.5" x however wide the fabric is. I did this with my sweetly printed fabric and some solid white, high quality, 100% cotton fabric. 

Pairing a printed strip with a solid white strip, the two are sewn together using a 1/4" seam. The instructions would then have you sew all your pairs together, alternating prints with solids, in sets of six sewn strips. Then you slice down the six strips in 2.5" sections. Now, I suppose if you are making a large quilt, this would be the way to go, but you might have several instances of those same six printed squares lining up. You can see this in my first little quilt sample (below), where I used a test-run of one of my fat quarters and a beautiful charcoal grey hemp/silk fabric.

See how the same prints line up vertically? In a larger quilt, you would arrange those strips in a way to keep this from happening, but I wanted to make sure I had the very best chance for the random scatter of prints on what would be a smaller size quilt for a baby crib. So, I decided to do things the hard way. 

I cut each pair of strips into the 2.5" sections.

ta-da!

 I sandwiched print square over white square (and white over print) and sewed a 1/4" seam along one printed square edge.

That gave me a row of four alternating squares. I joined one row of four to another row of four, being sure the prints and solids alternated both up/down and across. The next step would be to join those two to another two, etc., etc.

And so, after only one afternoon, I have enough rows to make about 1/4 of my quilt top. I never thought I would be doing this! I have to say, it is quite meditative. Keeps me from my bad habits and negative thinking. Peace at last!

Even better news is that this is a project I can stop and start.  I can easily pick up and sew a few squares anytime I get moody over not hearing from the coop board or if I am just plain bored from packing and arranging. And even if I need to put my whole life in storage in the next few months, while waiting for my new home, the rows and squares can come with me and I will continue to join them together. And, in the end, in spite of it all, I will have something tangible, comforting, and beautifully handmade. That's the plan anyway.

Fabric Paint Test Results

A little late with my test results because it took me awhile to wash and dry these swatches three times! They went in with some heavy clothing or towels and were washed and dried at hot temperatures, so they have been through plenty of wear and tear (plus some unraveling!). There is some fading, but not too bad considering what they went through. We don't usually treat our hand-painted fabric this way, do we? I think the SoSoft fabric paint preformed the best on the plain cotton quilting fabric. The pale green canvas swatch became creased in the experiment and there was more fading on those crease lines. Remember, even commercial fabric will fade some. Now, an interesting test would be to do the same with paints that normally require heat setting. Possibly after 48 drying time (and no ironing), they would preform just as well.

Before

After

Fabric Paint Test

Home again!

A few weeks ago, one of my customers had a question about fabric paint. While directing her to the types I like to use ( Jacquard textile color, Versatex screen ink, and Pebeo's Setacolor), I discovered a new brand. Or perhaps I had just never noticed it before. The paint is called SoSoft by DecoArt. One unfortunate thing is that all the colors are only available in a 1.15 ounce size. It may be time for some customer feedback, but first......

What stood out to me is that this product claims to require no heat setting (usually ironing - great blog post about this on Jezze Prints), which is something that adds quite a bit of work to the fabric printing process. This seemed too good to be true, and in a way it was. These paints don't require heat setting but they do require 48 hours of drying time. I suppose this is alright as long as one plans ahead and is confident that the paints will, in fact, be washable after this amount of time. Therefore, this is a situation where rigorous scientific testing is needed!

On Friday I pulled out three random fabric scraps out of the pile, loaded up three different stamps with three different colors, and applied paint to fabric. I was about to toss them into the wash when I actually read the directions and the part about the 48 hours. I have now waited anxiously for the 48 hours to pass and will soon begin the washing process. How exciting! I plan to do several washings just to make it even more scientific. Check back tomorrow!