Pink And Turquoise Flamingos 50s Tie Front Shirt

Hello hello!

Today was a great day for me for two reasons.
Firstly I finally got to go on a test ride on my new (second hand) bike. And it was a beautiful ride along the canal and then up towards the hills. Oh I'm so happy with the bike!!
Secondly I was wearing my newly sewn flamingo shirt which I love even more than my new bike!^_^
The sad news is that the summer is leaving us now, autumn definitely was felt is in the air...

Anyway weather aside here it is:
My pink and turquoise flamingos 50s tie front shirt!



Freshly screen printed flamingos:

What do you think? Aren't the flamingos sweet?^_^


Gosia

xx

Hand printing and fashion- 50s Tie Front Shirt

Hello,

I was doing some design and pattern cutting last week and came up with this vintage inspired- 50s tie front shirt with sea side inspired hand printed design on it.

It's such a comfortable slightly loose cut, it's perfect for warm summer days.
Looks great with jeans and shorts and skirts too!

My hand carved boat stamp

I love this design so much that I am going to make more shirts!^_^

The next one I have in mind is in blue colour with pink flamingo prints, let's see how that goes...

Gosia

xxx

Pretty Butterfly Stamps

Hello again!

Here is my latest carving and stamping experiment.
Sweet butterflies stamped on medium weight linen, lovely light background- like blank canvas awaiting to be filled with creativity! I love this fabric!

I really like the blue butterfly! It's a double stamp, first in white colour and the second one stamped on top of it is in metallic blue, I love this effect!^_^

I am thinking of using these swatches and make throw pillows, wouldn't they look just lovely on a sofa?? Hmm.. I think so!

Gosia

xxx

Screen Printing at Home- Tutorial

Hello and happy Sunday!^_^

Lately I have become fascinated and quite obsessed with fabric prints, to be more precise with printing by hand! I got my hands on these wonderful books (below) which provide very detailed tutorials and/ or are full of inspirations! 
If you are interested in hand printing and trying different techniques it's really worth getting PRINTING BY HAND by Lena Corwin. Each and every method is thoroughly explained here.

MASTERING THE ART OF FABRIC PRINTING AND DESIGN focuses mostly on digital printing and teaches how to design your own fabrics. Both VERY lovely books!

I’d done screen printing in the past at college and I missed not doing it so today I decided to prepare my own stencils and a screen frame and do some hand printing in the comfort of my own home!

Materials needed:

-old wooden frame,

- polyester mesh/ finely woven polyester lining fabric

-staple gun

-textile paint/ water based fabric screen printing ink

-self- healing mat

-Mylar paper

-freezer paper

-utility knife

- old plastic card

-masking tape

- cotton/ linen fabric

First I’ll be making my own screen frame!

I used an old wooden frame that I bought from a charity shop for £1.5 and then got a piece of finely woven polyester lining fabric (that was lying around in my studio and did a great job! You would usually use 12xx/ 120 polyester mesh which was quite expensive so am glad my lining worked!) Then I tightly stretched the fabric over the frame and stapled using staple gun (It’s one scary tool I have to say! Be extra careful when using it!)

And the screen frame is now ready!

 Next step is to make a stencil.  I’ve tried these two:

 Freezer paper stencil- you can directly draw the design on to the paper and then cut it out with a utility knife and iron to the right side of your fabric with its glossy side facing down using medium-high iron setting. When you are done printing just peel it off.

This one is much easier to cut and the final cut out design may look much neater but the downside is you can only use it once.

Mylar stencil-  first draw a design on a piece of paper, then place it underneath the Mylar and tape the sheets together with masking tape to a self- healing mat, cut the design out of both sheets at the same time. Now you would need to apply an adhesive (such as spray mount or dry mount) to hold a Mylar firmly in place. I didn’t have any adhesive. I taped the stencil in place which may cause some ink to bleed under it as it doesn’t lie firmly against the printing surface.

(Note: it did bleed a tiny bit so I will definitely need to get some adhesive for my next project!)

The good thing about Mylar is that it can be reused.

Now it’s time to print!

Apply ink to screen, drag it down the screen with your old plastic card and push it up the screen to make sure the paint has been applied evenly.

Mylar stencil after printing..

Remove the frame. (Wash the frame straightaway otherwise the mesh will be ruined when the ink dries!!)

I printed two different designs and then added final touches with a brush. Wait for the ink to dry before starting next print. 

When the ink has completely dried iron both sides of the fabric to fix the design. It can now be machine washed in 40 degrees.

Below is my first small sample, iron fixed and machine washed. All looked fine!

I really liked my final design so decided to make a small tea towel by neatly folding and pressing the edges then stitching. 

Oh! How much I've enjoyed it!!^_^

If you decided to follow my tutorial please share the designs, I would love to see them!

Gosia

xxx