Refashioning With Fabric Paint

I recently volunteered to review the Merchant and Mills Gyo Top for Minerva Crafts. I wrote a whole blog post all about it which you can read here. The short story is, I loved the pattern but wasn’t keen on my plain grey top, I have been trying to sew more basic seperates to go with more of the jazzy things in my wardrobe but this one just turned out to be so blah.

SO, I decided to have a play with some fabric paint. It just so happened that Zeena Shah (@heartzeena on Instagram) had just released a tutorial for how to print on her Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Dress with a parsnip. Obviously this was the solution to my boring top problem! I had some Yellow Dylon fabric paint in my stash and one parsnip in my fridge – it was meant to be.

I did a few tester prints on some scraps of the grey fabric before I got stuck in. I found how to apply the paint really smoothly by dipping it and getting a nice even ‘spot’ on the fabric but I really wanted it to look hand-printed. I wanted it to look a little more uneven so I found if I applied the paint to the parsnip with my finger it would print with a patchy look I absolutely love. I didn’t have a plan as to where the spots went, I just applied them randomly. I did try and be really careful to avoid headlight boobs but apart from that there was no plan – I was just playing with paint! It was so fun!

Now I have a finished top that I love and have worn absolutely loads. Once I finished painting the fabric I left it to dry overnight and then set the paint by ironing it on the reverse. I am happy to report that this top has now been washed a couple of times and there has been no running or fading to the paint at all!

Have you had a play with fabric paint? I will definitely be playing with it more in the future. Maybe something for this year’s refashioners challenge???