Home Decor: February 2011 Archives
I designed this belt to combine my favorite prints with the big, chunky leather style belts that are all the rage right now. I have seen these belts used to cinch in a billowy tunic, add definition to an empire waist dress and spice up a bland cardigan. I love them but have often bulked at the boutique price tags these leather belts can carry. I decided to make one for myself and share it with our Fabric.com blog readers who, like me, are budget minded but still looking to stay on top of the styles. This Belt can be made to fit any style. If you are more conservative your can make it out of Faux Leather or Suede to stay on the neutral side but if you prefer a brighter belt, use a bold Home Dec print like Ty Pennington's Impressions to add even more color into your closet. You can even use this belt in this season's IN color, orange, to introduce a contrast to an outfit of neutrals if you are color shy but looking to branch out (New Year's resolution?).
You will need a ½ yd of Ty Penninington's Impressions Home Dec Fabric
½ yd of Fusible Heavy Weight Interfacing
Download the Belt It & Cinch It Pattern Instructions here and have fun!
Part of my usual call of duty each month is to surf the Fabric.com website looking for interesting products to feature on the blog. This is a thankless task that I am loath to perform but alas it must be done and done by me. Upon my perusal for February's Blog calendar I stumbled upon PLAID Simply Screen- an at home silk screen craft that looked like tons of fun. It was! I am now a fully fledged silk screen fanatic. I could not wait to get started on this project and if you will notice from one of my pictures that I rose early and held off my excitement long enough (just!) to brew a pot of coffee. Silk screening with Simply Screen was easy and really fun but some tips are needed.
1) Wash and iron your item first. I just washed mine and didn't think to iron because I pulled said items (1 women's t-shirt, 1 toddler onesie, 1 cotton pillowcase) fresh from the dryer. However, ironing is needed. You want your item to be perfectly flat and wrinkle free. Paint can gather in the wrinkles or areas can be missing due to small wrinkles. You also will want a nice flat surface to lay your screen.
2) Use painter's tape. The directions call for it but I wanted to stress this. This is an important step. You don't want your screen to jump in the midst of your work. The tape also can serve as a guide for your paint line. Put your tape just outside the screen area and then don't go over the tape with your paint line.
3) Apply a good bit of paint. My first shot I just applied the paint nice and slow but you want to allow the paint to build up so your line is really think. Think: apply paint allow the drop to build up and then move your paint bottle a little and repeat.
4) Use pressure. When you are using the paint applicator use a good bit of pressure. You really want to push your paint through the screen. It is not enough to just glide the applicator over the screen; you need to use some pressure. Otherwise you will get light spots or parts of the design will have no paint. You can see this in some of my pictures as I was learning a good technique.
5) If you want to layer your designs, wait at least 12 hours before overlapping. I wanted to do a row of one design across the edge of a pillowcase. I did every other tile and then waited 12 hours to fill in the rest.
Please add your own silk screen tips in the comment section or on our Facebook page. I used this Simply Screen design package and Fire Truck Red and Metallic Tin Foil paint colors.
