Fabric Painting

I have been having some fun experimenting! Bought some new fabric paints, pulled out a doily I had tucked away and some of my watercolor brushes and played.

I'm not much for planning things out normally, so when my new paints came in the mail I just pulled my supplies together along with a piece of aluminum foil and began applying paint. Since purple/lavender is my favorite I had to start with it and what works better than violets!

These paints are water soluble. I thinned them with water, but think I need to order the extender to keep the consistency of the paint. As you can see, I couldn't get nice crisp edges. Sometimes that is OK, but at times you need a clean edge. All in all it didn't turn out bad. I will probably add more to it and then incorporate the painted doily into a project.

So far I really like these paints for fabric painting! They can be mixed and blended and feel similar to my watercolor paints. Also, they don't get stiff on the fabric and according to the directions can be heat set with a regular iron. I do need to plan more of a design for the next one and take a little more time painting but you know what it is like when a new product you've never used before lands in your hands don't you. I actually followed a link Pat Winter's blog for sun printing. Pat had shared this link to Elizabeth Creates where she explained a bit about the process. Elizabeth included a link to Dharma Trading where you can find the Setacolor paints. I actually bought a book called Blueprints on Fabric by Barbara Hewitt a few years back which appears to be a similar process but with chemicals. Later I purchased another beautiful book called Colors Changing Hue by Yvonne Porcella which has a chapter on Paint Techniques and includes sun painting. I haven't attempted either of their techniques but this one sounds much more user friendly. I know from past experience that Pebeo has some wonderful products. I can't wait to try the sun printing with these paints!