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

Notebook Cover Tutorial

Hello and happy weekend everyone!

How was your Saturday?? Mine was very productive and fun! Playing with beautiful printed fabrics is what I love^_^

There are so many lovely fabrics out there, don't you just love all the colours and fun prints?
 I DO!!! My favourite way to sew with them is patchwork and quilting, they look amazing, the more different patterns the better.

I made this patchwork neck pillow a while ago:

These fabrics come from various Tilda's collections, they are so pretty! My pillow is super comfy and I use it all the time. If you want to sew your own you can purchase my PDF pattern and instructions  here.

And today I was working on a super sweet notebook/ book cover and I will share the tutorial with you. Give it a go, it's so much fun! And the book looks a lot better!^_^
 I want to fill it in with all my creative ideas!

BOOK COVER TUTORIAL

 You will need:

-scraps of various fabrics
-lining fabric ( I used cotton)
-light weight wadding
- 2.5 cm wide bias binding
-scissors
-self- healing mat
-tape measure
-3 ribbons of different colours
-rotary cutter
-sewing machine

First measure you book/notebook:

Add 3 cm (that will be your seam allowance). Mine measures 36 cm x 24.5 cm (incl seam allowance).
Now determine how many patchwork squares you will need. I am using 5 x 5 cm square template to cut mine and I would need 60 pieces.

And here the fun part starts.. Be bold and choose fabrics with lots of different prints and colours.
I use a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat as this way you can cut more than one square at a time and they are more accurate but you could also use scissors.

Lay out your fabric squares. Place them in a desired pattern, label them so you remember the order later on.

You will also need to cut a piece of wadding and a lining fabric using your notebook measurements (incl 1.5 cm seam allowance),  cut 2 flaps too- the same length as the lining and for the width - a bit more that a quarter of the lining's width.

All the pieces

 Sew the squares together to form rows using a 1 cm seam allowance. Press each row when 

finished to the same side:

Stitch all the rows together and press.
Neaten flaps' outside edge with a zig zag stitch, turn under 1 cm to the wrong side, press and stitch. I used a decorative stitch for that:

I hand printed a small design on one of the flaps in advance:

Lie the fabrics right sides facing together and stitch the flaps on the patchwork piece:

I wanted to add heart appliques on the cover front:

 Now stitchsides of the lining to hide flaps' stitches- sandwich the flaps and stitch:

Turn it inside out, sandwich the wadding and stitch all the way around.

Almost ready!^_^  Stitch 2 zig zag lines down the center.

Stitch on the ribbons right in the center, cut them all a bit longer than your notebook length. I cut mine in various lengths:

Now we are going to hide these horrible raw edges by adding bias binding:

I wanted to add small hearts on to the ribbons...
For that you need to cut 3 pairs of hearts in different colours and 3 wadding to go inside of each- if you want them to be a bit puffed. Stitch with a zig zag in a contrasting thread.

And... It's done!! Congratulations!

And with the notebook:

Let me know if you try to make your own cover and if you do I hope you have as much fun as I did! Oh and please share, I would love to see what you come up with.

Gosia

xx