Thursday, January 14, 2010

Crayoning!

I love to crayon.  I always have.  Crayoning on fabric is easy and allows me to add another dimension to my quilting.

I use regular everyday Crayola crayons.  The big pack of 96.  I have been told others are better, but to me its just a sales pitch to buy something that is more expensive.  I don't intend to get caught up with it.  I have had no trouble with the crayons I was taught to use so I'm sticking with them.

I have done mostly pillows.  Dora the Explorer was done for my youngest granddaughter who was madly in love with her.











Harry Potter, for the one grandson who devoured every book that has been written.  You couldn't speak to him while he was reading them............he was too involved in them to hear what you were saying.
A tooth fairy pillow for our oldest granddaughter when she turned 6 and her teeth started to fall out. 
    Then of course when the youngest granddaughter started to loose her teeth I made another one.

All of these patterns were found in colouring books.   I traced them onto the fabric and then did what I wanted to do.  I did follow Dora  and Harry pretty much the same as the book, but the tooth fairy had to be pink.  A favourite colour at the time of my grandgirl.

This pattern was found in a magazine that was for Christmas.  I enlarged it as the original was a bit small for what I had in mind.  When I showed this at my Guild, one of the girls looked up and smiled at me.  As I walked past her, back to my seat she was sitting embroidering the original one.  Great minds......
This is the original pattern.  I did nothing to it.  Surprise, surprise.  It was suppose to be painted, but I don't paint although I would love to give it a go. I have made three of these and gave two away as gifts.
 This wallhanging was in a quilting magazine a few years back.  It reminded me of the verse we use to sing as children....."This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash our clothes......."  It didn't call for crayoning, I added it.  I liked the outcome.

It only called for the 30's prints and the embroidery. 
Before you begin......make sure you have a piece of fabric that has been washed and that no fabric softener has been added to. You must not have any chemicals in the fabric at all. If you do your crayon will not adhere to it.


Crayoning on fabric is easy.  Once you have selected your fabric, cut it larger than the finished piece by a good 3 inches on all sides.  I try to find a mottled or tone-on-tone fabric.  It is especially necessary to use a white fabric if you are going to be doing eyes. You don't want the white part of the eye centered over a green or red or blue bit of fabric.  Take a closer look at Dora and Boots.......
Iron a piece of white freezer paper to the back to give your fabric stability.  Lay your pattern underneath and trace onto the fabric using a light source.  I use my light table for this part of it.  I use the Ultimate Marking Pencil to trace with.  I can buy the leads for it that are specifically made for fabric.  I don't use a disappearing ink pen.  That could be gone before you are done.

For the next part you have two choices.  You can select another piece of the same fabric or just use a corner of the piece that you have cut.  This will be your testing area.  Pick out which crayons you want to use and test them on the fabric.  A word of advice here.  White crayon does not work on fabric.  I don't know why.  It just doesn't!  Do they show up well enough?  This is where you find out.  Once you are satisfied with your choices, put the box away and leave all these crayons out until you have completed your project.
When you have completely finished you can remove the freezer paper. 

When everything is coloured the way you want, take your work to your ironing board along with a piece of paper towel.  Lay the towel down, then turn your project over and with a dry iron, heat set the crayon.  You will smell the wax from the crayons.  When colour no longer penetrates through to the paper towel, the crayon is set.  (Move the towel around so you are always using a clean section.)
Once this is done, you are ready to sandwich your top.  You do this the same way you would a quilt.  You are getting it ready to embroider.  Select complimentary embroidery colours and you can either use a stem stitch or a running stitch.  Its up to you.


If you take a close look at Harry's cloak, you will see there is a bit of texture to it.  That was done by putting a piece of screening underneath the top while I was colouring.  You can use anything you choose to do this.  I have used a piece of wood with a rough side, a piece of screening, even scoot guard.  Take a look around and see what you can find.  Do a sample bit to see if it works the way you want before you try it on your fabric.
Enjoy.  It is fun. 

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