Fun With Fabric Paint

It's school vacation week here, so some of us who volunteer at the Leominster Art Center have been running art classes. Yesterday I had a small fabric painting class, where we decorated bandannas. During the class, I was busy and forgot to take pictures.But afterward, I photographed my bandannas so that I could show you what we did.

First, we used Dye-Na-Flow paints, which are very liquid, on wet bandannas to create a sort of tie-dyed/marbleized look.

 Next, we drew on another bandanna with fabric markers. With brushes, we painted our drawings. We also made foam stamps, and stamped on the bandannas with the stamps we made, as well as with commercial stamps. We also used stencils and sequin waste for more interest. Kids always seem to like using the sequin waste. Maybe because it's sparkly? Or maybe because you can splosh on a lot of paint without worrying about it, and still get a really cool effect?

I was going to have them go back to the first bandanna, and add more detail, but we got so into what we were doing on the second one that we ran out of time. Afterward, I used up all the leftover paint on this one.

Then, it was time to clean up. Underneath everything was a piece of muslin that we were using for a drop cloth. In the background you can see some of our stamps.Why do the drop cloths always end up being the most interesting piece?

I'm especially loving this section. It just might find it's way into a quilt sometime soon.

I only hope the kids had as much fun as I did!