painting fabric has been on my bucket list for the longest time. i’ve always been drawn to the idea of making my own marks on my fabric and creating something unique to sew with, so this was a really cool experience for me. it’s not so much a feeling like woah, i painted fabric, but rather woah, i’ve wanted to do this for so long and i finally made it happen for myself and now i feel really good. the process of opening the jacquard dye-na-flow i got for christmas, and getting out the brushes, and choosing the fabric, and just, creating, was something i had been putting off forever by letting other projects take priority. so it was really nice to let go of expectations and paint some squiggles. and dots. and blobs. and dots on top of blobs.

fabric painting isn’t as easy as i had thought it would be. the fabric and the dye, together, they make things unpredictable, and now i see that the beauty in fabric painting is that uncertainty and fluidity of it all. a mistake turns into a master piece, and every scrap of fabric can be used for some project in some way. that’s so cool. and i’m by no means good at this. i was a bit timid at first, so i looked to bookhou and fromtreetosea for inspiration at first before mixing my own colors and going freeform.

the best combination for me was white screen printing ink tinted pastel colours by a few drops of dye-na-flow ink. i’m totally in love with the pastel squiggles on the gray linen, and i will definitely have to make some more of that. the rest, i’ll have to see what i feel like later on. i’m thinking it’s one of those things i don’t like at first, but i’ll have a use for later, so they are staying in my stash for now.