How to: Painting Cheesecloth

I’ve been seeing a lot of art using cheesecloth lately, so I finally had to give it a try. However, before creating anything with this fabric I need to paint it.

coloredcheeseclothglam

Julie Booth uses a lot of cheesecloth in her art right now, and I’ve really been attracted to the texture it brings to a piece. She wrote an article in the April/May 2019 issue of Quilting Arts magazine on how to paint it. I’m painting it just a bit differently.

Let’s start with the cheesecloth. The cheesecloth I bought was in yards. I cut pieces about 16 inches by 36 inches for this session.

cutting cheesecloth

After the pieces were cut I scrunch them up and place in these containers I also use for dyeing. They are just used yogurt containers. I love how the cloth looks in the containers!

cheeseclothreadytopaint

I’m using Setacolor paints. They used to be called Transparents, but now are called Light Fabrics. These are my go-to paints for sun printing.

Setacolorsforcheesecloth

I am mixing about a tablespoon of paint with water. I’m not measuring, just getting a nice amount of paint, and then adding water.

mixingcolorsforcheesecloth

Next I poured the watered-down paint on top of the cheesecloth.

soakingcheesecloth

I let them set for 30 minutes or so. When I squeezed out the paint, if the cheesecloth looked to light for me I just put it back in the paint water. Once I was happy with the color, I laid them out on a piece of plastic to dry. They are so yummy looking!

cheeseclothdrying

I checked them several times during the day, and they were still damp so I let them dry overnight. Here are my results.

coloredcheesecloth

The colors are so yummy! Next time I’ll add a little more paint to get even richer colors.

Now to use them!