After the huge project that was my bedroom curtains, I didn’t want to pleat anything else for a long time. So for my living room curtains I bought cheap plain white curtains and stamped them using carved wooden blocks and fabric paint.
The first curtain didn’t come out all that well, but as I went along I came up with a system that works well. Here are some tips:
- put a rag directly under the fabric you’re printing – the paint leaks through a bit
- put a folded towel under the rag – wooden blocks are hard, and they don’t print well if they’re pushing against an equally hard table (this is probably less important if you’re using rubber or linoleum stamps)
- run the roller through the paint after every swipe across the stamp – running it back and forth over the block takes off the paint you’ve just put on
- if you don’t have a roller you can dip the block into the paint, but be sure to keep the layer of paint very thin- you don’t want to fill in the holes of your stamp
- push down firmly and wiggle the block around slightly to get the paint off onto the fabric
- it’s fine to mix different brands of fabric paint – I made the pink I used out of three colors made by three brands and had no problems
