It’s been about 25 years since I’ve used sun printing paper but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while! Who knew there was sun printing fabric?! I made this easy little square pin cushion using 8.5″ cotton cyanotype fabric squares and buttons:
This applique shirt was so simple…
…and I love the extra button detail:
The squares I used are the Blueprints on Fabric(pink on blue) shown below:
In a nutshell, the 8.5″ fabric squares in the kit are pretreated with a chemical that makes them change color in sunlight. I took the squares and pinned them to cardboard backing to keep them in place and laid various objects on top to experiment:
I placed the board in the sun for about 10 minutes and let the sunlight do its thing. The fabric darkens slightly (not to its dark blue you would expect):
Once the fabric has been in the sun for about 10 to 15 minutes, it is washed with cold water and the dark blue color appears:
I’m pretty sure there are over million things you could do with this fabric…here was my first hour of playing with it:
I pinned buttons to the fabric in the shape of a heart:
I pinned one of my mother’s old necklaces in place:
I layered different types of lace:
I used a transparency with a superhero “POW” on it:
Stay tuned for more sun printing soon!
that's so cool! I remember doing sun prints as a kid, but I didn't know there was fabric. and I love pink and navy together right now-perfect!
Wow that is so cool!
I love that kit. I used it recently to put some of my son's drawings onto fabric (and played around with some other stuff). I love the fish and buttons. I did some toy frogs and puzzle pieces!
http://punkinpattern.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-drawing-to-fabric.html
oH MY!!! how crazy is this!! love it
I LOVED sun paper when I was a little girl… however, it always faded overtime… I'll definitely be checking out the fabric… I love it!
I'm thinking of so many things I could do with this fabric. One is cut it into shapes and letters. Thanks this is awesome
very cool ashley, lots of possibilities!
That is super cool. I need to get some of that
Hammer & Thread
I didn't know they had such a thing. This is so fun!!!
I've never heard of sun printing before, but I love it already! Do you know if it will stay on the fabric wash after wash??
Thanks for sharing!!!
Jessica
this is too cool never even heard of it i want to go buy some right now
Amanda
This is super cool. So gonna copy. Someday. I love the objects you chose.
This is super cool. So gonna copy. Someday. I love the objects you chose.
i love love love love this! I remember playing with photo paper in jr high and having so much fun. this would be an awesome project with kids. thanks!
The necklace is SO COOL! I love that idea! What a fun post, thanks so much for the introduction. I'll be linking to this.
Very cool!
Oh my! i have just got to try this out! I had so much fun this summer playing with sun painting with fabric paints. I know I will totally love this.
Thank you for the fantastic review and tutorial.