In between seasons? Want a project with a fresh spin? This might be the prefect time to explore your stash of suiting and your printing design eye.
Stenciling & Suiting are a beautiful marriage in this garment. Yours could be a shirt, jacket or a vest. The key is using a pattern with lots of pieces. For this project, each pattern piece was stenciled with a different combination of stencil designs: Bamboo Forest, Jakarta, Deco Bird and Off the Wall. My fabric is a lightweight suiting blend in a medium grey. NOTE: A medium tone fabric lets both light and dark colors show.
THE PROCESS- Cut out your garment pieces and set aside.
Play on the scraps to explore some printing ideas: Print some of the colors, combinations and images you are thinking about. The color combination for this jacket was inspired by the magazine images included in this photo. Consider printing different presentations of your images: An overall background design, a border design, some heavily printed areas and some lightly printed areas.
Another way of looking at your design approach is whether you are working in an organic or more geometric way.
Once you have some samples you want to duplicate, spread out the garment pieces and set up to print. The sample printing can be cut in to pieces and pinned on the garment pieces to actually see how a placement would look. Light applications of paint make for successful layering.
Suggestion: Start printing the back pieces first. A good place to experiment, this can build design confidence before printing the fronts.
Pinning the fabrics on a dressform gives a feel for how the design is coming, and where you might want to continue printing.
These cloud-like edges were created with the Intagliato Stencil.
A printed edge on a 2-part sleeve.
Printing the BACK first can give a good feel for how the images and colors are combining and how you want to work on the front.
A piece with the Jakarta Stencil is being 'auditioned' as a potential piping for the front edge. This is an exciting way to build a design!
The buttons, or other closures used on the FRONT can influence your printed design. Notice how the front edge on this garment has more printing where the buttons will be placed. Looks like it is time to sew it up next!
Enjoy your next printing project & studio time!!! Diane