Quick Ribbon Printing Tutorial

I am recycle aware and I like to reuse what I have got before I buy something new. The reason why I did this tutorial is to show one of the ways fabric scraps can be recycled, which will help to decrease the amount of waste we produce during the holidays.

Here it is! You will need paints: textile ink or acrylics will do just fine, any paint leftovers will work. Fabric scraps cut into strips, I have plenty in my house as I do sew a lot or you can use wrapping paper from last year will work fine, just print on the plain side of paper. Brush or sponge to apply paint on stamp.

For actual stamps use your existing stamps if you have them, if not check Lino Printing Tutorial on how to make your own stamp, or you can use potatoes, by carving simple shapes from it, cork, old eraser basically anything that will make a print.

Apply ink on your stamp and print along fabric strips, you can follow certain pattern or not it doesn’t matter. In fact, unfinished scruffy prints has its charms and looks more interesting.

Let ink dry and your ribbons are ready.

I have made 4 different ribbons with my old stamps, which will be enough to wrap up few pressies for coming Christmas gift exchange 🙂

Fashionista Clutch Tutorial

Clutches took over fashion world by boom in a last year or so, there is a massive amount varieties on the market, each designer offers their unique clutch.  I do have a few favorites in mind but they are not in my price range, anywhere from $300,$500 for a pouch, this is what clutch is, hmmm… too dear.  I decided make my own and share with you the steps to make one.

It took me a while to conclude this tutorial. I can’t tell you how many things went wrong – nearly everything actually 🙂  I forgot to buy zipper, can you imagine a clutch without a zipper or any kind of lock? Mistakes with pattern. Even the weather was not friendly to me to the point that I could not take proper photos, so sorry for bad quality of some images, but it’s better than nothing I guess.

Let’s start from the materials you will need: zipper size equal to the width of your clutch, thread, fabric for lining, leather and fabric for the clutch. I used my hand painted fabric experiment. Other thing is to mention before we start that all seams allowances in this tutorial are about 1 to 1.5 cm.

Figure out what size clutch do you want, as I love oversized bags I decided that I will be only satisfied with an oversized clutch, so my clutch size is 40×48 cm in unfolded version.

Cut 2 details from each fabric and leather. Leather pieces are 40x 25 cm, body’s fabric 40 x 22 cm and lining 40x 50 cm adding 1 cm on each side for seams. Basically keep the width of each piece the same, like in my variation it is 40 cm.

Join the leather pieces with the main fabric, by facing them to each other and sew them together on a long side leaving about 1cm from the edge for a seam.

It’s a time to attach zipper. This took me a while to think which technique to use. I will try to explain it here but if you are not familiar with sewing and my tutorial is unclear to you check this video on zipper tutorial here from Pandemic Apparel (use exposed zipper technique).

Lay the zipper face up, place the fabric face down on top of the zipper,  face to face edge to edge and sew it as close to the actual zippers teeth as your sewing machines foot allows. You don’t need to use a zipper foot for this. Do same the step with the other side of the zipper and the other piece of fabric, It should look like this.

Attach lining by placing it on top of wrong side of the zipper equalling it along the long edge and sew it slightly closer to the edge than the sewn fabric. As you can see on the picture first goes the lining then on top it is the zipper with fabric that have been attached to it  earlier . Do symmetrically with other piece of lining.

Open flat each completed piece with the zipper being in the middle, you must have two pieces like on the picture below.

Place them symmetrically on top of each other equalling each seam, leave zipper inside half-open ( to help in turning inside out).

Join those two pieces by stitching around their perimeter leaving bottom edge of a lining open you will need this for turning clutch inside out. Round up corners while sewing if need it. My zipper was too long so I had to leave some unstitched space around the end of zipper. I suggest to you keep it simple and have the right size zipper 🙂

Turn it inside out.

Lift lining half way up along the clutch, and sew by hand with a loose stitch lining to clutch, seam to seam. This step will secure lining to stay in place inside of your clutch.

Straighten lining down; it should end up a bit longer than the actual clutch length.

Fold extra fabric inside of lining matching the length of the clutch.

Sew it few millimetres away from edge. Hide or cut threads.

Turn it outside out.

Fill your newly made bag with goodies and you are ready for the day!

I love this clutch and I will definitely make more for my shop, stay tuned 🙂

P.S  I have to give a credit to my beautiful helper Alex she was next to me in every step of this tutorial.

Lino stamp fabric printing tutorial

Fabric stamping one of my favorite ways to create a fabric with a special touch. For a crafty minds it’s a really good fun! Its easy, quick and effective. For a fabric stamping you can use different materials for example most accessible and probably everybody have it at home is a potato, very good for creating organic style pattens, an eraser, a tree twigs, a foil,a pencils basically what ever comes to your mind you can use as a stamp.  In this tutorial I want to show how to make a stamp out of linoleum or lino what most people call this material. I am not a teacher so please excuse me if it’s not very clearly written hopefully the images will  help my text, but if you struggle let me know and I will try to explain better.

(This is my collection af stamps, as you can be seen on photo I used them a lot )

A few things to know:

Carving tools are sharp; keep your face away from tools. Alway carve away from your body. Wear an apron while printing. If you are printing at home take care of your carpet –  ink will stay on it forever! If first stamp will not be a success don’t give up, but try again you will work it out!

To create a stamp you will need a piece of lino (1) (linoleum) choose a soft one for your first project any craft store should have it, lino carving instruments (2) that can be purchased in an art supplies store, the design itself or a drawing (3), a piece of wooden board (4) that will be used as a base for your stamp, a glue (5), a scissors, a sheet of carbon paper for transferring your design to the lino, and someone to supervise you.

Let me introduce you my supervisor Alex, none of my jobs are done without her sharp eyes and curious nose. She is the best!

Start with a simple design or drawing that you want to create a stamp with, something that will not take a long time to cut.  Layout your design on the linoleum economically, that way that you have some lino left for your next project. Transfer your design to lino (I use carbon paper), if some lines haven’t transferred properly finish them by hand with a pen. You don’t need to do this step, you can just simply hand draw your design  directly on to lino.

Now you will need your cutting tools.  Begin to cut the main lines, sort of like tracing them but with a tool, for this is better to use the cutting knife with finest nozzle.

When cutting hold your arm at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. It is advisable to practice on a blank piece of lino before you start carving your stamp. Slow down on bends but do not let go, if needed use your other hand to rotate the lino. Try to carve out from the narrow end to the wide one , from the edges to the middle: controlling your movements.

After the main lines have been carved, we need to clean the unwanted  parts of the design, those parts that should be empty  when stamping, for this procedure you can use other tools with a wider blades.

Do not tear or pull or pluck protruding pieces of lino, you may end up simply wrecking your work

It’s all been carved and excess lino been trimmed around the edges, it’s time to glue. I can say that gluing base is not necessary step, but to me it’s preferable because the output is much better and more accurate, you will be able to hold your stamp more comfortably. Those who chose not to glue – you’re ready to stamp.

Cut the wood block to the size of the stamp, the block may be larger than a stamp but not smaller, or create your stamp base on your wood block size that way you can cut a few corners. (This piece of wood I cut to the size of my stamp using a small jigsaw)

For gluing is better to use a waterproof glue, so that upon contact with water its does not dissolve. You can buy a special glue for woodwork. Follow the instructions on the package to glue the lino and wood together. You might need to wait few hours for the finished result.

When the stamp is glued, clean excess glue if any and then proceed to testing. For this you will need a small piece of fabric (preferably plain weave cotton), textile ink, a sponge, a palette and a roller to apply ink on stamp (I prefer to use sponge, I do not like the way roller distributes ink on the lino). All of this you will need later for a serious stamping as well  🙂

Test stamp is very easy! Lay your testing piece of fabric flat on a flat surface.  Apply ink on a stamp with even layer and press stamp on to testing piece of fabric, making sure to distribute pressure evenly all over the stamp.If you see flaws and you are unhappy with the results of your stamp printing you can go few steps back and carve stamp to perfection with your tools. I hand to carve a bit more. If you are happy what you see you are ready for the fun part!

For the final step I have chosen a linen towel to print, you can also use a tote bag, a tea towel, pieces of fabric to use it in further projects or paper is a fantastic for stamping as well, different texture papers creates interesting results. Set up you work space comfortably, lay fabric (bag, towel, napkin) flat, use something to mark up your repeat (areas where stamps will be pressed, you may sketch your layout on paper for visual reference) apply ink on a stamp and start stamping. You can print in many colours as you like, just wash stamp and dry before printing next colour. Iron your prints with hot iron for securing the results.

HAVE FUN!