Today my hint is: stripes.
In fact, it involves an article of clothing that already has stripes (see below), but I wanted to add something more and unfortunately that meant finding identical fabric or making my own. After hours of searching it came down to making my own.
Pants? Vest? Dress? I'm not going to tell you yet.
And here is my lovely gray fabric to match:
After cutting it to size, I taped each piece off with making tape (found roll of 1/2 inch at Walmart for 77 cents) to create the stripes. I tried my best to keep the lines uniform in thickness.
Then I painted each piece with screen printing ink. Although you could probably use any sort of fabric paint. The key is that you want it to heat set. I used a sponge brush to apply and made sure to keep the paint thick. Diluting the paint too much with water results in washed out lines (which actually looks cool, but is frustrating if you don't want them).
Normal lines.
Bleeding or washed out lines.
After letting it dry a little, I removed the tape and touched up any faded or washed out lines with more paint (using tape to block off the areas) and let it dry one last time. Then I ironed each piece, making sure the iron touched each area so it would heat set. Make sure to cover your fabric with a clean cloth (or muslin) to make sure the iron doesn't stain it and that the paint doesn't come off on the iron.
And voila! Beautiful striped fabric to match:
I ran mine through a cold wash after I finished ironing to remove the stiffness the paint caused.
Since it was all heat set, the fabric is still striped and feels nice and smooth.
That's all for now...more clues and hints later.
Happy Crafting!
