Tag Archives: coloring fabric

More Fabric Fun

Now that I have discovered typing single handed (for me) is slower that slow, I’m going to make this as short as possible. The fabric pieces I’m sharing here were done with one hand, I do believe with two functioning hands I would have gotten better results. Some times it’s just more about having fun!

As usual, the pieces may look different on each of our screens and in person. In keeping with my previous posts I made three additional Neocolor wax pastel exploration pieces. The purple piece is created the same way the gray wrinkled piece was. See the captions for some of what I did for each piece. Photos on the right are the dry and pressed flat pieces.

  • wrinkled
  • pressed dry (still a favorite!)
  • Rubbed pastel onto the plexi, into a flower shape with leaves and twisted at center points
  • This for sure would have been better twisted with two hands.

For the above – I colored plexi with blue wax pastel and then orange cross-hatch, laid wet fabric on top, gently smoothed, and left flat to dry. I was going for a plaid look but my daughter says it looks like reflections in the water – I agree and really like this finish.

For the landscape i drew a simple landscape on plexi and laid wet fabric on top, smoothing with my hand until all pastel met with the fabric. Pulled the bottom of the fabric to make some ripples and pulled some down from the top for clouds.

If you color any fabric with Neocolor II wax pastels, I’d love to hear/read about and see your artwork.

News and Winner

Well, I was hoping to be able to share a finished piece but gravity changed my plan. I shared this gel plate printed, resisted background fabric with hearts on it ages ago.

Grungy fabric

I can’t even remember all that I did to achieve it but it involved freezer paper and a mesh produce bag. I don’t use hearts much in my art and the fabric is questionable. But it did feels good to (start to) do something with a piece of fabric I just couldn’t seem to part with. Here’s my Grungy & Cute piece not quite finished. After adding some hand embroidery and hand quilting (I’m rusty), I’m starting to like it! I would have liked to have finished it but as I said…

Embroidered hearts surrounded by hand quilting.

… gravity changed my plan… While taking a walk I tripped over a raised sidewalk and fell, on my nose and other body parts, fracturing my wrist in two places and my elbow. I’m not done seeing doctors and I’m not sure how it’s going turn out. Thankfully it’s not my dominant hand so we’ll see what I may be able to do (Next month I’ll show you what I attempted one handed and how it turned out).

Valentine’s Day Splint

Thanks to those of you who entered the February giveaway by leaving a comment. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to get blog posts and giveaway notifications.

I’m happy to announce the winner for the Neocolor II fabric packet giveaway is Cari R. (please email your mailing address to fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com and I’ll send the fabric ASAP).

Neocolor II coloring fabric packet

Coloring Fabric and Giveaway

Some of you know that I’m a quite a fan of Caran D’ Ache Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastels. If you’ve taken my leaf painting class you may already know how fun these wax pastels are to use on fabric. I have used them in some of my videos and lessons.

Recently I played around and made a few pieces of fabric. I have to add that even though we get an average 266 sunny days a year here, I picks a gray day to color these fabrics. I mention that because had I been able to set the pieces in the sun I would have gotten different results; drying faster, maybe lighter finishes, better sunprint type results, and more pieces of fabric. Still, it was a lot of fun and for the most part I’m pleased with the results.

I’ll be giving these pieces away (one fabric packet) in a random sweepstakes drawing – See below for entry information.

I’m working on top of a piece of plexi-glass (acrylic sheet) so I have a hard, slick surface that I can move around as needed. Actually pieces may look slightly different in person and they are approximately 11 inches on the shortest side. Please excuse any light glare.

  • Pastel rubbed on dry plexi-glass.
  • Pastel sprayed with water then fabric set on top of it.
I rubbed more pastel under fabric and sprayed water on top then let it dry.
  • Found mess packing paper placed under fabric
  • Dry fabric rubbed with two different green pastels for a textured look.
  • Sprayed with water and rubbed more pastel across.
  • Pulled paper out, stretched it and placed on top, set the paper covered fabric under a lamp for a “sun print”.
Finished piece
  • Wet fabric on wet plexi and dragged pastel across causing ripple marks in the fabric
  • This is the rippled fabric, next add splatters
  • Get the round brush and pastel very wet then drip and flick the wet pigment off of the pastel onto the fabric.
  • Finished pieces with ripples and splatters

This is my favorite result but sadly the finished photo isn’t very good…

  • Black pastel and wet fabric to make gray wrinkles
  • Scribble on the plexi and use the wet fabric to mop it up. Cover fabric completely with pastel.
  • Squish the fabric up for drape type wrinkles
  • This is the fabric dried and pressed completely flat. It is actually a nice gray color, photo doesn’t do it justice.

I can think of many ways to use these little fabric pieces and I’m sure you can too.

Sweepstakes/giveaway begins February 10, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) February 16, 2021.

To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. Leave a comment stating that you would like to win the fabric packet and include your first and last name (or last initial).

On February 16, 2021, I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner on my next blog post. Winner will email me their mailing information and I will mail the fabric packet ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!