Have you ever wanted to add your own personal touch to your fabric, something to make your project pop a little more? Today makers, I will be showing you how I go about doing that with these three different methods, each one is easy and quick to do and give various results that you can try and find which one you like the most
Today I will be hand-creating this kimono graphic from Final Fantasy XIV, I wanted to do multiple different techniques for this in order to make it more interesting to the eye, and for the first step, I will be painting the base design. When working with a large garment like this, it helps to have a proper reference image and split that image into squares, this helps you visualize how it will look on your fabric and give your proper measurements to go by to make the overall graphic more accurate!
Instructions
Have you ever wanted to add your own personal touch to your fabric, something to make your project pop a little more? Today makers I will be showing you how I go about doing that with these three different methods, each one is easy and quick to do and give various results that you can try and find which one you like the most.
Today I will be hand creating this kimono graphic from Final Fantasy XIV, I wanted to do multiple different techniques for this in order to make it more interesting to the eye and for the first step I will be painting the base design. When working with a large garment like this it helps to have a proper reference image and split that image into squares, this helps you visualize how it will look on your fabric and give your proper measurements to go by to make the overall graphic more accurate!
PAINTING
To make my stencil I taped together 18 pieces of printer paper and got to work drawing the image, basically using the lines on the image above as guides to assist me and get the general layout I needed before I began painting.
With the stencil now complete I started cutting out some sections of it, focusing solely on the places where the black paint would go, this way I could sparingly lather the paint atop and get the general design painted on that I needed with ease and confidence.
The paint I used for this was tulips matte black paint, I really enjoy using this brand as its rather opaque and only needs at most three layers to get a solid layer. Be sure while you are painting that you have some cardboard or some kind of buffer between your fabric and the floor or table you are painting on. If you do not the paint may bleed through and stain whatever is under your workspace, work smart and clean!
I was rather satisfied with how the black sections had come out and so I continued on with the white doing the same method of cutting out the parts I was working on from the stencil and painting over the paper onto the fabric. You may mess up or have paint bleed into one another and the easiest way to fix this and get bold lines is just to trace over your edges with a small brush to make your edges more crisp.
With all the white and black sections painted it now came time for the teal/green parts. In order to make sure the work I just did did not get ruined I took some blue painters tape and layed it across the entirety of the design, this took a while but it is a crucial step because I would be using aerosol fabric paint after.
In order to keep consistency with the paint, I used tulip brand color shot fabric paint in mint for this, giving all the exposed sections a layer of paint. This step is most important for sections that required a gradient in color from the base fabrics yellow to the painted teal color, doing it this way allowed for a smooth and cleaner gradient that would be harder to achieve with a brush.
With the one layer of paint down I was then able to go back and paint in the teal color using tulip fabric paint in teal everywhere the color needed to be more bold and opaque, I also kept the paint atop the design so I could finish up this part much faster.
Lastly, be sure to set your paint by heating it and ironing it with your iron. Use a baking sheet in between when ironing, this protects your paint from getting to hot and melting. With that you are done with painting your fabric.
Making Appliques/Satin Stitching
Next up I will show you how I made custom appliques for some raised design pieces using some white pleather. For the design I needed I cut out eight standard diamonds, after cutting out my first one I traced it atop my fabric on the wrong side with a marker, this way they would all be even and the same size.
After cutting out some diamond holes in the middle of our appliques I took an Elmer’s glue stick, wet down the end and covered the backside of the pleather diamonds and stuck them into place. You can use a fabric gluestick if you wish but I have found an average craft one works just as well and keeps the applique from shifting on the fabric.
With the applique in place, you are now ready to begin sewing, for this I am using a zig stitch on my Continental Janome M7, above are the settings I used but if you own a different machine just be sure the stitches are tight together for this as we will be doing a sewing method known as satin stitching.
What satin stitching is basically stitching parallel lines close to each other that end up looking similar to embroidery, I love doing this for appliques as it adds a raised layer dimension to the project and overall is rather eye catching. When stitching something like this that has sharp corner, be sure your needle ends on the right end of your stitch as show above, this way you can easily unlock your foot, turn the fabric, lock the foot back down and continue on with your stitch and keep everything nice and even.
Repeat this process amongst all your appliques for a stunning finish that will add so much more of a personal touch to your project.
Iron on transfer vinyl
The last way I will show you today to add a bit more dimension to your fabric is by far the easiest method and one more are familiar with and that being iron on transfer vinyl. I personally like to use this sparingly for small details and for this project am just doing it for these three flowers I cut out with my cricut machine. Iron on transfers can also be use without a cricut and you can freehand cut your desired design as well so do not be discouraged if you do not own one!
Take your vinyl sheet design and position it face down on your fabric. Grabbing the same baking sheet we used before, layer that atop your vinyl and begin ironing, this protects the vinyl from being overheated and melting. Iron for around 25-30 seconds and let the fabric cool before attempting to move your vinyl.
And with that you are done! Those are three different ways you can more dimension and flare to your fabrics, which way was your favorite? I hope this tutorial helps and gives you some ideas on how to take some boring solid color fabric and give it some new life by spicing it up with your own custom design!
