So a few weeks ago I made patterns for a dress I was going to dye with a few Rit dyes (a garment dye, which is dyeing the garment AFTER it's made versus dyeing the fabric before making the item.) The dress was going to be watercolor-like hues, but on the bus one day, I got an idea for a print that does not yet exist ... or would be super-hard to find.
Solution? Make your own fabric stamps!
Prior to that, I had read a post on The Pineneedle Collective, Annika's blog about DIY stamps and decided it was time to play with some again.
I had made some stamps in high school using an eraser and then again in college in my surface design class. The stamp I made in college had almost a plaid-like effect when stamped.
I first drew out my design in my sketchbook - 2 different sizes of clouds and then some wavy lines for underneath the clouds and a layering effect. Then I transferred it onto a sheet of foam for the stamp part. (A sheet of foam is around 89 cents at most craft stores.) Then I cut the foam and glued it to a piece of a styrofoam block which I cut apart to make 3 stamps.
Now, in college we would use a hot knife to cut our foam (most craft stores have them for around $22) but I couldn't justify buying one when this is the first time in about 5 years that I made a fabric stamp. I'll just suffer with styrofoam flakes everywhere.
Here are 2 inspiration photos for my print:
Solution? Make your own fabric stamps!
Prior to that, I had read a post on The Pineneedle Collective, Annika's blog about DIY stamps and decided it was time to play with some again.
I had made some stamps in high school using an eraser and then again in college in my surface design class. The stamp I made in college had almost a plaid-like effect when stamped.
I first drew out my design in my sketchbook - 2 different sizes of clouds and then some wavy lines for underneath the clouds and a layering effect. Then I transferred it onto a sheet of foam for the stamp part. (A sheet of foam is around 89 cents at most craft stores.) Then I cut the foam and glued it to a piece of a styrofoam block which I cut apart to make 3 stamps.
Now, in college we would use a hot knife to cut our foam (most craft stores have them for around $22) but I couldn't justify buying one when this is the first time in about 5 years that I made a fabric stamp. I'll just suffer with styrofoam flakes everywhere.
Here are 2 inspiration photos for my print:
Terrible quality - stolen from the internet!
So I glued the foam onto the styrofoam block. This styrofoam block cost about $3 at a craft store.
Interested kitties. They have to get into EVERYTHING!
And here is the photo of the print I tested out on an old piece of fabric. I plan on using a similar color background for the actual dress.
Not being too sure if this was too crazy to do a whole dress in an all-over print, I used Photoshop to help me visualize if I should just save this print idea for a top or what.
Ta da! (Ok, so my Photoshop skills are still janky, but you at least get the idea of what it would look like. I kept the actual print size as true to life as possible.)
I actually quite like this idea though I haven't time to get to a fabric store until later this week to purchase the right type of fabric for this dress. Sure, I have lots of scraps but this definitely would not work as a scrap fabric dress.
Wish me luck!
I've been thinking about making a stamp to use for tags for the garments I sell. I can't decide if I want to attempt to make it myself or have one made online (which isn't terribly expensive). I like the styrofoam idea.
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