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LBB Signature Fabric

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I’ve been wanting to do an exclusive signature fabric for my Lil Blue Boo dresses for a while now. I finally got around to it!


The design is all hand drawn using a sharpie and then burned onto a silk screen frame (see my screenprinting 101 tutorial here). I wanted to work in some things I love so it includes the number Pi (as many decimal places I could fit), roman numerals, Chinese number characters and a few other surprises throughout. I was a math major and studied the Chinese language in China so I’ve got some random “loves”.

Note: I wanted to add in some trigonometry, prime numbers etc…..but then I thought the dresses might be banned as “cheat sheets” from school.

Speaking of Pi: I love this link which is a catchy recitation of it. I think I could memorize at least the first 100 decimal places of Pi if I listened to it enough 😉 I am a little obsessed with all things geeky. Geek is the new chic right?


I love busy, intricate prints and have a hard time finding the perfect prints for the dresses I make…..so why not make my own? Stay tuned as I begin to incorporate the new prints into Lil Blue Boo clothing!

Silk Screening Dimensional Monograms – Tutorial

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I made this little bubble racer back for Boo today and added her initials to the front. We tested out the water in the pool…..still a little cold, but getting warmer!



The initials have a dimensional 2-layer look to them.


First I printed out the initials I wanted to use:

Then I used double sided tape on the back of a sheet of contact paper…..


….to keep my initials in place on the back of the contact paper to make them easier to cut out. I used a razor blade to carefully cut them out.


You can read my full tutorial on screen printing with contact paper, but in a nutshell I placed the contact paper stencil on the back of my screen and applied a glob of white screen printing ink at the top. Note: I’ve used many different kinds of white screen printing ink…..all with different results. I love the Versatex white ink because it doesn’t crack and is very soft when washed.


To get the three dimensional look, I pulled the ink DOWN the image and then repeated several times using enough pressure to bleed some of the ink under the contact paper. Then I repeated the same process pulling the ink from RIGHT to LEFT over the image to get the ink to bleed under the other way.

Note: You might want to practice this on a scrap piece of fabric to get the pressure right…..but since the ink is going under the contact paper you will need to wash and dry your screen for each print.


The finished print has a slight “shadow” to the left and bottom.


The finished dress!







Now onto my next project…..adding initials to our bedding!

Correcting/Repairing Images for Screen Printing

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I tend to reuse my screens multiple times over for my prints and sometimes the images start to deteriorate as some of the photo emulsion starts to erode and wash off. There is a really simple solution to touch up these images: screen filler


I use a small detailed paint brush to apply screen filler into the areas where the emulsion has started to disappear to clean up my image:


Another problem I run into: the glass I use to create my prints is slightly smaller than some of my larger screens so a small amount of light is diffused leaving a faint line in the final image:


When this happens I just use screen filler to touch up the image:


You can also use screen filler to free hand a design onto a screen. You would apply it anywhere you don’t want ink to pass through. Happy printing!

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