Spring Fabric Designing

Feather Friends: A Stencil Collection

We are all anxious for spring!….it's coming on that unexpected, warm breeze and the budding at the tips of bare branches- Birds are busy chatting and snatching up nesting sites. 

My favorite stencils with bird images are now offered as a collection-

Here is some design play with the Feathered Friends Stencil Collection. 

Switch up colors & fabrics for fresh designs=This is a good way to inspire new results with any stencils you have.

• Mask off- parts of a stencil to print specific elements. 

• Layering-  2 stencils gives new images.

• Explore using stencil parts- instead of complete images to build your own look.

Designing Yardage- Printing with a collection of stencils really expands your design possibilities. Working with a commercial print or stripe can be a great way to get ideas for working into what you see there. Another technique is folding fabric first, then printing over the folds to get some fresh images to start with. Next, open the fabric and continue printing to complete the design.

Printing Your Own Trim- Printed fabrics, cut into trim or used for covered cording makes your design more personal.  Cutting trim pieces first, then printing your design in a border strip can give a new twist to your image too. 

Printing ReMake Garments- Black, plastic curtain eyelets (from the drapery dept. in the fabric store) were used for the closures on the front and sleeve details of this linen shirt. The print fabrics, collaged into tabs, are looped through and closed with a large snap. It's great fun to come up with inventive ways for using ordinary products like this!!! What's waiting in your stash?

So many great combinations for these stencil images...I am just scratching the surface...printed bias collars in my next blog!