Recently I had the opportunity to hone my fabric stenciling skills. I had forgotten I had these skills…they were hidden back in the far reaches of my 6 year old memory next to the slap sticks, hula hoops and trips to the zoo. I remember my mom or aunt using some special oil paints to stencil fabric. A lot has changed since then. Now, we have so many cool stenciling products I can’t wait to tell you about!!
Stencil Revolution
When Stencil Revolution offered to send me a couple stencils to try out, I had a really hard time choosing. Just look at their mandalas, large scale wallpapers and especially their tile stencils! I decided to try the Japanese Tile stencil first. I love the simple geometric design and knew it would be a good first stenciling project.
I had been wanting to make the Caroline Party Dress by Mouse House Creations and thought it would make a sweet little spring dress!
Fabric Painting – so many options!
Sometimes I wish my solid fabrics had a coordinating print. Fabric stenciling allows me to create whatever ‘print’ I want! I’m a pretty picky person with my style so stenciling seemed like a great option.
I used several fabric painting products from Michael’s. The Tulip® Soft Matte® Brush-On Fabric Paint is your standard fabric paint – it has good coverage and is opaque. I love the Fabric Creations Soft Fabric Ink line. This product sinks into the fabric instead of leaving a film on the top. It’s great for softer details. To get the look I wanted, I mixed the white matte fabric paint + the fabric ink in ‘Iridescent’ at a 1:3 ratio. This means that my fabric paint mixture had a mostly opaque coverage with a little bit of sparkle.
When you’re stenciling, it’s a lot more fun if you don’t try to make it look perfect. This is your handmade creation – enjoy the process! I love the character of this print I made and am very pleased with how it looks with the plain aqua chambray bodice.
I think this dress will be a perfect spring / Easter dress and since it’s a ‘twirly dress’ my daughter loves it!
How does this stencil hold up to abuse? Surprisingly well! Some of my paints washed off easier than others and I had to scrub the stencil a bit afterwards to get off dried paint. The stencil looks exactly the same as when I took it from the mailbox – no tears or creases…it’s ready for my next project.
Puffy 3D Fabric Paint + Floral Stencil
My second project was a little Posey Tunic from Sew Like my Mom using the Bjorn Tile Stencil. I was really curious to try some of this yellow Plush 3D Fabric Paint . You paint it on, let it dry, and then heat set it with some steam and a hot iron. It’s the heat and steam that makes the paint puff up and gives it a 3D effect. How sweet are these little daisies!
“They’re so friendly. Don’t you think daisies are the friendliest flower?”
(Please tell me you’ve seen You’ve Got Mail!!!)
This tunic is bright and happy, maybe if we all wear spring colors then we can invite spring to stay. And if it takes a while to get here, we’ll enjoy our spring colors anyway!
The great thing about these stencils is that I can reuse them for whatever I want: I could stencil a bag, a wall, a box…and depending on what medium and materials I use I could get a completely different look!
[This post was sponsored by Stencil Revolution. All opinions expressed are my own. I do not make a commission from their products.]
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