DIY Network

Painted Fabric Painting allows you to create a variety of effects on fabric. From "Uncommon Threads" episode DUCT-103

Painting fabric is an easy way to begin creating your own unique fabrics without the complications involved with hand-dyeing. Guest Deidre Adams shows how you can create simple backgrounds with just a quick wash of paint or continue to combine techniques for a complex layered effect. The possibilities for painting your own fabric are endless--and it's a lot of fun!

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Materials:

	Painted Fabric Wall Hanging
	Ordinary acrylic paints--either fluid or in tubes--work well for fabric painting.
	This is just a selection of the painted effects that can be achieved on fabric.
	More texture can be created with the addition of stitching over the painting.

white cotton fabric, cut into fat quarters
assorted colors acrylic paint
paintbrushes in assorted sizes from small to large (be sure they can be used with acrylic paint)
plastic drop cloths or other large sheets of plastic
aluminum pie pan
surgical gloves

Notes about paint: Any type of acrylic paint will work for this process. It's easiest to use a fluid type paint because it needs less thinning, but tube paints will also work when thinned with water. If you're worried about changing the hand of the fabric, use a brand formulated for fabrics, such as Setacolor.

1. Wash and iron fabrics.

2. Create a background layer (using a fat quarter size piece of fabric). There are two quick and easy ways to get a good background texture:

• Scrunch the fabric into an aluminum pie pan or wide shallow bowl.

  Note: Once these items have been used for painting, be sure not to use them for food preparation or serving. Use the largest size paintbrush (Deidre uses a very inexpensive 2" house-painting brush for this) to wet the fabric with clean water. When the top is wet, turn the fabric over, keeping it in the pie-pan shape, and wet the other side. Then use the same brush to dab paint liberally over the surface of the fabric. The paint should be fairly thin to allow it to be distributed throughout the fabric. You can use a single color, or try multiple colors for an interesting mixing effect. You can turn the fabric over again and paint the other side for more even distribution, or just paint the one side if you want to leave areas of white.

• Lay the fabric out flat on a plastic-covered surface (for added texture, you can use plastic with a lot of wrinkles in it). Used produce bags from the grocery store work great for this; the more wrinkled, the better. Using the largest brush, apply thin layers of paint any way you wish. You can use side-to-side strokes across the entire surface, use the brush to dab in small areas, or even tap it against your hand for a spattered effect. If you wet the fabric with clear water, or use a lot of water in your paint, you can get some nice watercolor effects. In her demonstration, Deidre uses four colors for a varied color wash.
  

  	Figure A
  	Figure B
  	Figure C

3. Paint the first design layer. Begin with some kind of motif or basic shape. You get a more interesting design if you have multiple variations on shape and size. For this example, we'll use leaves (figure B). You can use real leaves or make your own templates with quilting template plastic. (Deidre's crazy about leaves, so every fall she collects different ones and presses them in a phone book. Then she organizes and save them in plastic sheet protectors.) You can use the leaf shape to paint around, or you can paint directly on the leaf and use it like a stamp for a subtle effect. When you are painting around the shape, try to feather out the edges: this will make them blend nicely when you have lots of layers built up.

4. Continuing this method, build up additional layers. Vary the colors and values of the paint and the size and shapes of the leaves.

5. After you have a good foundation of layered shapes, you can use a mixture of bronze and white to do some additional painting and stamping (figure C). This adds another dimension to the piece.

6. Using your chosen motif, do some direct painting of these shapes. Outline a shape with a thin brush; then fill it in with paint or just leave the outline. Do some of both and create variety. Start filling in small details such as veins on some of the shapes. The idea is to create a layered effect by overlapping shapes and outlines and details. You can also fill in shadows on some of the shapes for more dimension.

7. After the fabric is dry, you can heat-set the paint according to the manufacturer's directions if desired. Deidre doesn't wash her quilts, so she doesn't bother with this for her work.

RESOURCES :

Jacquard Products—Dye Na Flow, Lumiere Paints, Pearl EX Stamp Pads
Jacquard Products
Website: www.jacquardproducts.com

GUESTS :

Deidre Adams
E-mail: deidre@deidreadams.com
Website: www.deidreadams.com