Today's MYSTERY MONDAY PROJECT is about my lessons on coloring on fabric, gel pens, and pictures of the testing I did for our chicks meeting.
Here's page I wrote about to pass out at a chicks meeting but for some goofy reason I saved it as a jpeg, so it may print fuzzy, so I turned the picture into a pdf don't know if it will help or not? These are the things I know for sure ...........to keep the most amount of coloring on the fabric through a wash or two, You need to test your fabrics first, so you understand how your fabric and your coloring techniques will look before and after washing, because they will fade to a soft watercolor look on some of the colors and fabrics and brighter on others. That your fabric needs to be 100% cotton and pre-washed before coloring on then heat set after your finish coloring. Do not color hard, it will just end up stiff with a waxy, greasy shadow on fabric, around item after you heat set it. And just so you know.......white crayons just end up just being a greasy spot.
twice washed sock monkey books
Try some coloring on fabric, experiment first, then go bold. Try new things!!!!!!! Like coloring on top of textures......sand paper, those textured plastic scrapbook sheets, leavesof trees and ferns, lightly blend colors. If you want to control precisely where you color without lines, use contact paper and cut out desired shape, peel and stick, color, remove contact paper then heat set!!! all kinds of fun........!!! My previous post has pictures of our monsters that we colored for a quilt or two.
Don't forget to go register for my mystery monday giveaway from 2 mondays ago, drawing closes July 24 drawing held on July 25.
Here's page I wrote about to pass out at a chicks meeting but for some goofy reason I saved it as a jpeg, so it may print fuzzy, so I turned the picture into a pdf don't know if it will help or not? These are the things I know for sure ...........to keep the most amount of coloring on the fabric through a wash or two, You need to test your fabrics first, so you understand how your fabric and your coloring techniques will look before and after washing, because they will fade to a soft watercolor look on some of the colors and fabrics and brighter on others. That your fabric needs to be 100% cotton and pre-washed before coloring on then heat set after your finish coloring. Do not color hard, it will just end up stiff with a waxy, greasy shadow on fabric, around item after you heat set it. And just so you know.......white crayons just end up just being a greasy spot.
here's the pdf link to to the above notes on coloring on fabric
This is the unwashed version of fabric where I compared Crayola's, regular and washable crayons, and Roseart crayons( a little bit less expensive ones than Crayola, and they work just as well as Crayola for this project. They even have a few different shades of crayons I might add) And various types of markers and gel pens as well, notice that I labeled things so I would know after washing
In the above picture the one on the left is before heat setting.......the one on the right has been heat set. See how the color is blended into the fabric better.......less of the coloring strokes. I tried coloring various ways, and made duplicates of each set and washing half of each set for comparison. Just a note.................washable crayons are not completely washable on white prewashed fabric.........there is just the tiniest residue color left. If washable crayons are heat set, they are permanent, and after washing look basically like the regular crayons maybe one shade lighter. SORRY I thought I had pictures of the post-washed samples but I cannot find them. Even after the color has been heat set a lot of the color does still wash out but quite a bit remains. If fabric is not pre-washed and cotton about 95% of the color washes out.
see the pictures of the sock monkey book see the color levels I ended up with compared to the samples above..these books have been washed twice. The first time I washed them in a warm/cold rinse load with a load of old t-shirts that I didn't care if any crayon transferred........I don't think any did, but I wouldn't put them in a load of good clothes just in case! I wash most things warm/cold with regular tide. So your laundy detergent may affect color level too.
twice washed sock monkey books
I found the best pens for the heaviest outline that doesn't bleed, run or fade are the Zebra g-8 pens from the office area at wally world or at an office supply store.................the pilot g-2 pens ran, just horrible when washed. The new bleed proof sharpies look like they would work, I wrote on some fabric but I have not washed it yet. Some gel pens do not wash well, heat set or not. Some run, some fade.........run your own experiment on prewashed scraps of the fabric you intend to use.
here's a monster (click on on the word monster for a pdf link) for you to color so that you can
experiment with coloring on your own fabrics.............or if you want something more realistic below is a cornucopia, part of my basket collection. is only a jpg, not a pdf.
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Try some coloring on fabric, experiment first, then go bold. Try new things!!!!!!! Like coloring on top of textures......sand paper, those textured plastic scrapbook sheets, leavesof trees and ferns, lightly blend colors. If you want to control precisely where you color without lines, use contact paper and cut out desired shape, peel and stick, color, remove contact paper then heat set!!! all kinds of fun........!!! My previous post has pictures of our monsters that we colored for a quilt or two.
Don't forget to go register for my mystery monday giveaway from 2 mondays ago, drawing closes July 24 drawing held on July 25.
Your post is wonderful. Thank you for sharing. I colour on fabric too, and am always fascinated by others that do to. I always learn something new! Thanks you!
ReplyDeleteWhat a timely post for me. I want to make some farewell thank you gifts with my toddler, and markers will work so much better than paint!
ReplyDeleteDid you test Crayola washable markers? He vastly prefers them to crayons and I know it'll be a lot easier to get him to help me if we can use them. If not, I can let YOU know how they work out.
For the record, Crayola washable markers aren't colorfast at all. And if you color heavily with crayons -- a favorite technique of my toddler -- a lot will come off on the pressing paper (I used a regular piece of copy paper) but none on the iron.
ReplyDelete