Friday 14 September 2012

Your favourite quote on a cushion

One of my favourite blogs is Wit & Whistle and this was the first place where I came across this technique of using stencils to help you writing down your favourite quotes on fabric.

Your favourite quote on a cushion
Photo Credit: Wit & Whistle

I postponed it for a while, as my fabric marker is awful, but today I was bored and decided to give it a go. The key ingredient to make it work is definitely patience. I didn't know how hard it could be, but writing with a pencil, through a stencil, onto fabric is not an easy task.

Well, let's get down to it. You will need the fabric you will be writing on, a piece of cardboard the same size, a pencil, a stencil and a fine point fabric marker (brush style is ideal, those similar to white board markers are no good, nor those our mums used to write on our uniforms with, the ones with a kind of ball point). Trust me, the marker can make or break your work!

Your favourite quote on a cushion
Photo Credit: Zaira Brilhante, with Pentax K-x

The secret to make it neat is to try and count the amount of letters you can fit per line and how many lines you will need to write your quote. This way you can define the space between words and between lines. I didn't succeed too well, but this was my first attempt.

The stencil I used was 20mm high letters. I would recommend you use one size bigger, it will make your life easier and the result will look sharper. Place the cardboard underneath the area you will write on. In this case, I inserted it inside the cushion to make sure the ink wouldn't run to the other side.

First trace your letters using a pencil, but don't rely on it too much. Although you can erase from the fabric, it might leave a shadow or even hurt the material a bit, depending on its quality. As this was a test, I was using a really cheap cotton cushion (£5 pounds, from John Lewis).

Once you're finished with the pencil, it is time to get down to use the fabric marker. Take your time, don't rush. And be really careful not to let your hands touch the wet ink and stain the rest of the fabric.

PS: Just out of curiosity, I wrote on mine the chorus of After The Storm, by Mumford & Sons. 

2 comments:

  1. vc q fez? Dá muito trabalho?

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  2. A primeira foto não, mas a da sequencia eu fiz sim, da um pouquinho de trabalho, mas eh porque eu nao usei a caneta mais adequada... quer que eu faca uma pra vc?

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