Lesson 5: Putting Paint to Fabric
Painting the Foreground -Traditional Fabric Paint
Any part of the fabric that you stencil in is part of its foreground. So this is where you and your paints and brushes come in. Remember to have enough brushes for each color you plan to use, since a damp brush could cause paint to run.
Using Traditional Fabric Paint True fabric paint has an interesting character, somewhat between that of a watercolor and that of an oil. It may take a bit of adjusting to, and so you should begin by doing a test stencil or two on a fabric similar to that of your final project. Get used to the feel of the paint and the special characteristics of transparent paints. It won't flow as easily as watercolor, and you need to be able to apply it without pulling on the fabric and possibly displacing parts of your stencil.
Start with your lightest colors if possible, and then gradually add in your darker colors and shading. The lighter colors will not show over darker ones, unless mixed with white to give them some opacity. If you need a lighter color than those you have on hand, then use an extender to dilute a darker color in the right shade. You can also try diluting with water, but test it on another piece of fabric before trying it on the finished project, because water-diluted paints can bleed.
Work on only a small area at a time, since you need to be able to shade each area while the underlying color is still wet. This is especially important if the temperature where you are working is high - the hotter the temperature the faster the paint will dry.
Does that make things sound daunting? Not really. In hot weather, mist your fabric lightly with water to retard drying. This may leave a watermark unless you paint up to a very narrow area of the design where the mark won't be so obvious.
But if your paint still dries faster than you could work, you can still shade your design by using fabric-marking pens.
If you still find that you were unable to do the kind of shading you wanted, there is one possible solution. Heat set the design after you have completed the base colors, and then wash it. This will remove some of the excess base paint and make the fibers more ready to accept an overlying color. It simply means your project will take more time to complete.
