Using the sun to print fabric

I’ve not done any sun printing since last summer. The sun was out Saturday so I played a bit.

Sun printed fabric
Sun printed fabric

If you are new to my blog, I’ve written several posts on sun printing. I started out using craft paint in this post. I also tried Dye-na-Flow in this post. But my favorite paint for this type of surface design is Pebeo Setacolor Fabric Paint (transparent). Here is my first post using that paint. I also have some additional posts on sun printing here.

So I’m back to using Setacolor and using less water when mixing the paint than I used in that first post about this paint. For this session I wanted to use leaves and flowers from our gardens. I’ve used ferns before and I love them as masks, but this time I also included lavender stems with flowers and thread leaf Coreopsis.

This is such an easy and fun technique. Here are the steps:

  1. Soak your fabric (should be natural – I use cotton) in water, wring it out lightly, and lay it on your work table covered in plastic. I put my table in the sun so I don’t have to move it when I get finished with my design.
  2. Add a little water to paint jars, add your Setacolors, and stir. The less water, the darker the color.
  3. Brush the color on your fabric. I use foam brushes.
  4. Place your masks on top of your PAINTED fabric. I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but the fabric under the mask will turn white or the color of the original fabric.
  5. Let the fabric dry in the sun.
  6. Pull of the masks and you have your beautiful sun printed material.
  7. Iron it and you are all set.

Here is my fabric in the sun waiting to dry.

Fabric waiting for the sun to print
Fabric waiting for the sun to print

This first piece is the one with the ferns. I always love how they look and love the brighter colors.

Fern sun printed fabric
Fern sun printed fabric

Here is a closeup:

Fern sun printed fabric closeup
Fern sun printed fabric closeup

This one is using lavender as a resist. The lavender was too thin to really mask much of the sun so I was not happy with this one. You can see the lavender stems, but it is real faint.

Lavender sun printed fabric
Lavender sun printed fabric

This last one is my favorite where I used thread leaf Coreopsis. You can see some of the flowers and the thread leaves. Love how they made marks.

Coreopsis sun printed fabric
Coreopsis sun printed fabric

But you really have to see this closeup. Look at all of the thread leaves and the flowers.

Close up of Coreopsis sun printed fabric
Close up of Coreopsis sun printed fabric

I used these paints for my art apron and after washing it several times, it still looks great.

That was so much fun and so easy. If this sounds like fun to you, I hope you will try it.

One last reminder: Tomorrow is my live webinar on how to dye fabric with ice. There is still room for you. If you aren’t available on Tuesday at 1 pm ET, you still can sign up and you will receive the recording via email. It’s going to be fun. I look forward to sharing one of my obsessions! Here is the link to register.

How to Dye Fabric with Ice webinar