diy stencil print bird scarf

Last week I took a small break from the sewing to make this stencil-print scarf. Isn't it adorable? I love all of the bird and animal print scarves, clothes and textiles in the shops, so I decided to create my own scarf using a bird stencil. I love fabric printing, and have tried lino printing recently, so just decided to mix it up a bit by trying stencil printing for this scarf. I think both techniques would actually work equally well for this kind of thing.

Here's how I did it...

Materials used

Muslin - approx 1.5 x 1.5m. You can use any similar lightweight fabric.
Cardboard
Craft knife
Black fabric paint
Sponge


First up I found an example of the bird silhouette that I wanted to use. Google Images is excellent for this sort of thing. I sketched it on paper until I was happy with it, and then traced it on to my cardboard. I just used an old cereal box for the cardboard.

My bird silhouette sketch

Traced onto cardboard

I then cut this shape out using my craft knife. It paid to use a fairly simple silhouette as it was easy to cut out and I knew it would suit printing better if it was simple.

My shape cut out of cardboard

I then had to hem my muslin as it was fraying easily. I used my sewing machine for this but if you used a fabric that frays but don't have a sewing machine you can easily do it by hand. Just turn the fabric under twice, pressing with an iron inbetween to keep the fabric in place, and then hem with short stitches.

Hemming my fabric

I then started printing. I did this by spreading some fabric paint onto a plate then pressing my sponge into it. I then held the cardboard stencil on the fabric and lightly pressed my sponge down. It didn't take much force or paint to create a lovely print.

Ready to print

I did a fairly haphazard pattern, with the birds flying in all directions, and with roughly equal spacing inbetween each print. The beauty of printing on a scarf is that it doesn't matter if your prints are a bit uneven!

Sporadic!

It didn't take long to dry, and once it had I ironed it on the reverse side so as to set the fabric paint.

Ironing - boring!

This scarf will be so cute for spring with denim and brightly coloured tees. Now I just need winter to go and for the sun to come out!

Have you guys done any cute fabric printing yourselves? If so, share - I'd love to see them!

Jen x