Trust No One.

I've since long wanted to incorporate my drawing into my sewing. I have designed a few fabrics on Spoonflower, and last year I made my final school project about a young seamstress. Recently I've started block-printing again and decided I'd try some things on fabric. here's the outcome!

Someone needs to trim her fringe...

This was a very simple printing project: I carved a lino stamp and used a metallic textile paint to stamp a length of dark blue linen. The paint is slightly too thin for block-printing so the coverage isn't perfect, which is exactly what I was going for! It took me a few hours to stamp the entire thing, but I loved the result. Making it into a dress took a little bit longer though, this particular paint (Setacolor) has to be heat-set and I really wasn't looking forward to ironing each painted section for five minutes...

Right before gathering my wits and starting en epic ironing session I decided to look for some alternatives. I quickly found out this particular paint can be set in the oven as well. Bingo! I ended up popping the entire thing in there for a few minutes, and now it should be washable. This was so much easier, and nothing caught fire. I'm curious to see how the paint will hold up!

The dress bodice is good old Simplicity 2444, with a gathered rectangle for a skirt. I didn't want the direction of the print to be all over the place, since it was so ridiculously off-grain already. Pattern matching this was out of the question, but I did manage to avoid having literal headlights...

I bought this linen during our first blogger meet in Brussels, because the colour was so nice. It's a truly deep navy blue and the fabric has lots of drape and lots of body at the same time. I have made some (unblogged, and sadly unworn) things with linen before, but this really won me over. There is another project in the pipes!

Here's another close view of the print. At first doing this for others didn't even cross my mind because it would take AGES with all the heat setting... But if it turns out the oven works just as well it might be an option. I've been steadily working on starting a webshop selling hand-printed patches and tote bags along with postcards and embroidered felt pins, but would anyone be interested in hand-printed yardage? I've been a bit disappointed by Spoonflower's printing quality, and while the possibilities with hand-printing are a lot more limited it certainly has its charms!