Mask & Paint

You don't need to be a professional screen printer to create this look.  All you need is some masking tape and paint... it's really that easy!

Your fabric needs to be mainly natural fibre (a small percentage of lycra will be ok), this technique won't work on synthetic fabrics.  We've used a beautiful NZ Merino Wool for our leggings.

Start by masking out the design.  We have taped the side panel of the ooh la leggings to brown paper.  You can play around with different widths and spacing of your tape to create the design you want.

We have just used normal black acrylic paint and mixed it with a textile medium.  Put two parts paint to one part textile medium.  Mix together.

Start painting making sure you get a good coverage.

If you want to use a light colour, you need to mix with an opaque white fabric paint along with your textile medium. 

Mix well.

Paint onto remaining sections.

Leave to dry, or if you're in a hurry like I always am, dry with a hairdryer.

 Peel off masking tape.

 Once it's completely dry, heat set your design by ironing for about two minutes.  You might want to test first on a painted scrap piece to find the temperature that will work for your fabric.  The textile medium will make your painted area slightly stiff but this will soften up after washing.  Voila!

Painting with Bleach

This is a really easy technique with such cool results!

You are going to need to do a bit of testing first to see if the bleach will work on your fabric.  Bleach doesn't develop the same on every fabric.  Just use some small swatches of different fabrics and paint a little bleach onto it and leave it to develop for a while.  Once you've picked the fabric with the coolest result you're ready to go.

It's much easier to paint onto your cut pieces than a made up garment as you want to have a couple of layers of paper underneath so that the bleach doesn't seep through.

If you're going to paint a directional design like we did, it's good to lay your pieces in the order that they are going to go together so that you can get a clear idea of what you're doing.

It's very simple... start painting.  Make sure you're in a well ventilated room, it's pretty hard core painting with this stuff!  Within minutes, where you've painted will start to lighten.

Once it has lightened to your desired effect, rinse your pieces well, then rinse in vinegar to neutralise the bleach.  Voila!  How cool does it look?!

This is the reason I said to use cheap paintbrushes.  This stuff dissolves them, so you need to paint fast :)  Have fun!

Introducing Janina

I'd like to introduce you all to Janina. She is the girl behind the artwork for my instruction booklet covers and also all the jewelery worn in my first collection "Imagination is the beginning of creation".

She is one of those really clever all round creatives that is just good at EVERYTHING!

She has a Bachelor of Textile Design (Honors) from Massey University and also a Post Grad Diploma in teaching and is currently an Art and Photography teacher at my former high school.

Now the reason I'm telling you all of this is because I am lucky enough to have teamed up with Janina to bring you a new section on my blog called Textile Lab.

Janina is going to be sharing her creative genius with us all with some really cool tutorials on how to easily transform your textiles at home to give a unique look to your garments.

I'm so excited to release these, we had so much fun doing them! 

The first one will be up on the blog tomorrow.

Sewing World

 

Keep your eyes peeled for the April issue of UK based "Sewing World" (on sale from March 15th).  There's a two page spread all about how I got started.  Thanks Sewing World!

Latest Music Vid from my clever little sis

Check it out...she's wearing the La Sylphide Dress :)

Wedding bells

Well I think it's about time I give you all an update!

I'm back and through the majority of my massive catchup and nearly over my post holiday blues :(

I had an amazing time in Italy with my family and a beautiful wedding day. We managed to get a gorgeous sunny day in the heart of winter.

We were married in the most beautiful little 16th Century Chapel on my (now) husbands family property in Cannobio, Italy. It is the most picturesque little town with cobblestone roads right on the lake. I actually think I got my childhood fairytale wedding!