It is one thing to print fabric by building up a pattern motif by motif, but I have wanted to spread my wings into an all-over pattern that isn’t repetitive. It would have to be printed as a whole, as it could not be built up from single motifs. While I was in the throws of Lagenlook, where I was mostly making very oversized tunics, that was impractical. The main garment pieces were just too big. But now that I have moved on to a different look with less voluminous tops it is a possibility. The main pieces of the Mandy tee are about 70x60cm, a little less if I leave the hem unprinted, and the largest acetate stencil blanks I can buy will just about cover this. A stencil that size is not that easy to handle, but then I only need to place it on the fabric once for front and back, and the sleeves can be done in one go together. Not exactly a doddle but still totally doable.
The push I needed to tackle this idea came in the form of a Diane von Furstenberg fabric I saw when visiting a fabric shop, which triggered a lightbulb moment remembering a cake decorating stencil I had seen posted by Sheyne Cooking on Pinterest.
I only have the very vaguest of ideas of what you would do with a cake decorating stencil, but I sure know what to do with a stencil on fabric! The DVF fabric was a silk knit which was $$$, but they also had a lovely plain viscose in a similar blue which I thought I could experiment on without giving myself a heart attack.
I enlarged the graphic in Photoshop to the size I needed, printed it out in sections and assembled these into the whole graphic again. Then I traced the outlines onto the acetate sheet with a marker and finally cut out the printing areas with a fine point soldering iron. You want to be careful to cut out the right bits, but fortunately, unlike with carved rubber blocks, if you make a mistake it can be fixed relatively easily with a bit of sticky tape.
I then placed the stencil on my cut out fabric, and coloured in the black areas with acrylic paint, thinned down with textile medium, and a stubby stencil brush. Doing this with a screen and squeegee would definitely be a lot faster, but after my last screen printing disaster I am a bit gunshy. I will try screen printing again for sure, but for the moment I am avoiding it if I can. An hour of colouring in with a brush seems easier to take than 5 seconds of potentially ruining a project with one fell swoop.
So here is the result, black acrylic paint on a blue viscose knit, using a cake stencil graphic. I am calling it Blue Cake. 🙂
I am less than thrilled with photos of myself right now, because I am growing my hair long again and it is at a particularly ratty stage. But here are a couple anyway.
Stencilling Notes
- Wet mixed media acetate sheet for stencil, largest size
- Acrylic paint from Aldi with Jo Sonja fabric medium, 1:1
- Stencil brush
- Spray on adhesive did not work, I could not lay stencil flat as the stencil is not rigid and dangly bits were sticking in the wrong places before I could lay the whole lot down flat
- Used back of small brush or chopstick to press stencil against fabric when applying paint, to stop running under stencil edge
- Heat set in dryer for 30 mins, also ironed
- Not washed yet
- Pretty happy with the print quality