Fabric Painting- Creating Magic on Fabrics

Fabric is such a medium that can be used in a wide variety of ways to express oneself. Wear it as clothing to make your own style statement or make them into astonishing home furnishings to decorate homes- they are always amazing! Not only fabrics come in a variety of colors and textures, they can even be embellished in different ways to make them all the more beautiful. Embroidery is the most accepted and widely adopted means of embellishing them. However, fabric painting has there since ages and is one of the adoring crafts that people love to do with fabrics. In fact, fabric painting is one of the means that can be used in innumerable ways- the only need is to let loose one's imagination.

Mostly, natural blended fabrics such as 50-50 cotton-polyester blends are chosen for doing fabric painting. There is a set process for fabric painting where it is first washed and dried to let it shrink and for cleaning any dirt, dust, or textile finishing chemicals from it. Then paints are chosen from among fabric paint tubes, fabric paint pens, paint pots and brushes. Designs are also chosen according to one's interest which include free hand designs, that is to paint without any design laid out beforehand. Many draw the designs with pencils on the fabric to be painted and others use iron on transfer method in which they use a colored transfer pen to trace over a simple lined picture. The design is then applied by placing the drawn lines directly onto the fabric and gently pressing a hot iron on top. The fabric is then painted through different techniques like stamping, reverse stamping, screen painting and others. Once fabric painting is finished, it is allowed to dry for about at least 24 hours to 72 hours so that it is thoroughly dry and set. The finished item is then again washed and dried.

However, there are certain considerations that should be kept in mind while fabric painting. This will be clear with tips for fabric painting. So read these tips and create magic on fabrics with fabric painting.