Skirts awash with colour
30 September 10
The girls have been asking for opportunities to do some more painting, and I was motivated enough by the thought of new, colourful skirts to walk them through this activity. I let the girls draw and paint on a length of fabric and then sewed it to make three entirely unique skirts.
Later I discovered that the fabric markers soaked through the cloth and onto my countertop, so protect your surfaces first before laying out the fabric!
Brioni liked to colour in my simple drawings. Calista was more interested in drawing on her own hand. And Aisha drew very complex pictures on her cloth.
I offered the girls several different colours of paint. As we started to run out of paint, I started to combine the colours to create new shades.
I enjoyed the interesting sensation of painting the fabric too. The paint would bleed freely, covering a wider area than the brush-stroke, so precise lines were not possible.
Once the fabric was dry, I brought it in and ironed it to help the colours set well. Then I folded over the seams to begin sewing the skirts.
After sewing the hems, I threaded through the elastic for the waist, and they were done!
Mummycraft factor: 8. Painting always involves more mummy-supervision than other projects, plus there was the ironing (!) and the sewing with this project. However, it was good fun, so if you have a sewing machine anywhere, I’d suggest you do this with your kids… Even if you don’t have a sewing machine, painting on the fabric was so much fun — give it a go! (The Mummycraft factor tells you how much of the craft the mummy ends up doing. 10 is full-on-Mummy-does-the-craft and 0 is walk-away-and-come-back-to-a-finished-craft.)
The idea for this project came from my new favourite inspirational blog: Filth Wizardry. Swing on by and check out Lindsey’s projects — she’s so creative!
Share this:
You may also be interested in:
1 · Tea · 30 September 2010, 12:56
This sounds like a wonderful project. ..I don’t have a daughter, but I almost want to do it myself! ;)
Did you have to use a special paint, so that it won’t wash out?
2 · Rosemary · 30 September 2010, 16:57
oh wow! That is so clever and creative! I am interested too in the type of paint you used.
BTW, is there a way to receive follow up comments from your blog as I don’t see how to read any f/ up comments without coming back here to view them?
Thanks!
3 · amandab · 30 September 2010, 18:24
Those are some fantastic skirts, any girl would love to have them I am sure :D
4 · Heather · 1 October 2010, 01:22
Those turned out adorable!
I have been collecting materials to do this since August and just haven’t found time. (All my permanent markers were dead.) I also want to do the Sharpie tie dye (draw with sharpies and then spray with alcohol.) I am actually planning on doing something similar with my stained cream kitchen curtains— planning to paint huge red peonies on them with a green background.
5 · Katrina · 1 October 2010, 07:57
I just love this idea! Those pillowcases look like they provided the perfect amount of gather. I hope you don’t mind but I linked to you post on one of my blogs. Next time I can get to spotlight I will have to have a look for some supplies.
6 · Amy · 2 October 2010, 04:20
What a lovely idea. I think my girls will love this is well.
7 · jenny @ let the children play · 2 October 2010, 10:14
Gorgeous – I would love to do this at preschool, perhaps using an old sheet to become a wall hanging. What type of paint did you use?
8 · Nadiah · 3 October 2010, 16:06
That is awesome. I can imagine some really groovy shorts for T made like that. I just need to wait until his attention span is up to it.
9 · Heather · 3 October 2010, 21:54
Love this!!
10 · cheryl · 9 October 2010, 17:02
this is really cool! i should give it a go too