When you walk outside, most of the craft stores outside will have a variety of designer fabrics to choose from concerning the project in your mind. Creating the custom printed cloth on your own is a fun activity and will save your money too!
When you design and print fabric of your own or according to fashion, you will have the privilege of expressing yourself with different textile projects, such as homemade clothing, or any other textile creation. Unlike screen printing Vancouver, you can go ahead with stamp block printing or inkjet printer as a digital substitute.
Printing Fabric with Stamps
Creating a stamp for design creation
You need to start by sketching a design on a linoleum block with the help of a pencil. The next option is the twisting of design before starting the craving process. Craving is done with the help of a knife or carving tool to lessen the block with the design remaining.
As you are a beginner, start your trial with a simple run. Using an image with few colors and clear lines is a good option before moving towards the more complex image and patterns.
When we consider block print for beginners, squares and triangles are common designs that can be chosen since they can flap and repeat in geometric designs. The other option is abstract images since it requires less efficiency.
While craving a design, the elevated part will be what is printed on your fabric, and you need to take care of the negative design as well. Moreover, linoleum is the most common material for block printing while other options include the wood piece, large rubber eraser, or any household item.
Picking up the Paint for the Project
Make up your mind if you want to use one or more colors in the overall design. Also, the paint should be oil-based or be meant for fabric.
There are specific reasons for this, as oil-based paints take a longer duration to get dried but have richer texture. Additionally, the stains are difficult to get out of the fabric, so it will assure you that they will not get washed out quickly.
Fabric paint also works well but they do not get applied to fabrics as smoothly as oil-based paint does. Both of the paints can be washed but it is advised to treat your fabric after printing.
Brushing the paint on the block
Dip the block in paint but using a foam roller to coat the surface is a good option. This will give more coverage and you will not end up with large spheres of paint. The requirement of an uneven design than a uniform pattern can be achieved by a fine-tipped paintbrush for applying paint.
Try to avoid getting excess paint on the remaining stamp when coating it. This will end up with random smudges of paint. Being a beginner, you need to practice it by using a shred fabric piece to make a check for imperfections in your stamp designs initially.
Pressing your stamp on the fabric
Taking some precautionary measures like placing some cardboard beneath the fabric will prevent the ruining of the surface underneath as the excess paint will get absorbed. It is your choice to go for a uniform pattern or not and can alternate colors and shapes in a recurrent pattern. These include stripes as well as polka dots.
Make sure that the stamp is pressed straight down on the fabric and lifted straight for better output. Also, try not to stamp with a different amount of pressure as it will create a distressed look. This is where your fabric can be customized based on how to promote the stamp.
Allowing the fabric to dry
This step is very important! You don’t have to handle it directly otherwise the ink may bleed. If you want the best results, what you can do is placing the fabric gently over a cooling rack before folding it. It will get dry in few days before the final set.
For the best results, the printed fabric can be soaked after it gets dried in a vinegar bath. When the process gets done, the fabric can be used for anything.
Apart from this, the fabric can be also printed using a computer by an ink-jet printer. What you will need in such a case is either 100% cotton or silk with a tight fiber weave to get the best resolution as output. This pretreated fabric for printing is available at craft stores.
A step-saver technique, but can cost you more. Make sure that the printer you are using for commercial printing is the one that can work on dye sublimation Vancouver and pigment ink cartridges.
The choice of printing the fabric is yours as you are allowed what you want for your fabric according to your lifestyle!
