Hand screen printed lampshade

I LOVE screen printing. I think its the quick results you get once you've set up your screen. I like the clean sharp lines you get when you print and I like creating repeats with the same image too. So my weekend has been amazing fun as I've been on a weekend screen printing course at Leicester Print Workshop and the best bit was you got to print on fabric and then turn it into a lampshade! 

The Leicester Print Workshop is set up to cater for any type of printing, a lot of which I don't quite understand yet but the old machines and letter press stamps looked lovely. 

We made our screens by coating a screen with emulsion that is sensitive to UV light. They have a big machine that exposes the screen to a certain amount of UV light. Black and white contrast images that have been copied onto acetate are used during this UV light exposure to create areas where the emulsion is removed, thus creating a type of stencil. The now dried in emulsion is fixed until you remove it with a special chemical, meaning you can print to your hearts content now with the prepared screen. 

My screen had quite a lot of images on it so to select the image I wanted to work with I just used masking tape to cover up the surrounding images. 

 I used system 3 acrylics which were mixed with a special binder.

 The screen was secured onto hinges that were attached to a melamine board. This made it super easy to print consistently in the same place. So much quicker than trying to line up prints by placing the screen down on your own. 

Registration prints were then done on acetate. The acetate was masked to the board at one edge. This meant that you could position your paper or fabric under the acetate and see where the print would end up. Then just flip the acetate to the side and print!

The key thing to remember so that your screen doesn't get blocked or ruined is to flood the screen after each print. This is done by just pulling ink over the image after you've done your print.

 Its best to set up your area with a clean and dirty section...below obviously being the dirty section. 

 To print the fabric for the lampshade we were given a long strip of calico. I then decided to create a border at the top and bottom. It took a while as the image had to be repeated (printed) many times. The picture below shows 4 repeats of my pattern. 

 I then masked off a section of 3 butterflies and printed them in-between the borders. I then used a lemon yellow colour for a second row of butterflies in-between the purple. 

I then used a lampshade kit to turn the fabric into the lampshade and here it is....I need to get a larger base for the shade but I wanted to try it out to get an idea of how it would look. 

 When the light is on, it makes the colours look even more vibrant. 

Below is a selection of prints that I did onto paper.

Heart screen printed tote bag - step by step pictures too!

Despite being just over a week of the month of love left I thought I'd share this post from the past about this hand screen printed bag I made last year. It has a 3 colour heart design and you can see how I got there with these step by step pictures. 

First of all I cut out the stencils - 3 for each colour.  

Getting all three stencils to line up was the tricky bit so I used this special fabric pen to draw round where I wanted each set of hearts to be. 

Then I ended up with purple hearts on my design. The ink fades when exposed to sunlight so I needn't worry about marker being all over my fabric! This picture shows the last stage of stencil so it was crucial for this one to line up so that the hearts didn't touch each other. 

I then looked through the screen to see where the hearts were. Using the squeegee the paint was forced through the screen - only to the areas exposed by the stencil. 

This is the completed print. I takes about 24 hours to dry then needs a good hot iron to seal the paint onto the fabric. 

I had pre cut my fabric to the size and shape to make a tote bag. 

The handles were reinforced with this 'cross in a box' stitching to make it extra strong for carrying heavy shopping. 

I also used this patterned bias binging to hide my raw seam edges inside to give it a neater finish. 

Its really handy for all sort of things and folds away easily in my hand bag too. I made 6 prints in total so have extra ones spare. I'm thinking of joining the 'giveaway gang' so if you would like to win this hand screen printed bag full of goodies then leave me a comment and keep an eye on the blog for further details!

Getting projects finished - eventually!

I've been a bit of a stranger to my blog recently and have been finding it hard to get time to keep things up to date. Having said that I have been busy, as always stitching, sewing, knitting and the like. I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in London a few weekends ago for the first time. I had a great time and even managed to get someone to teach me how to crochet!


On the business side of things (please see this post for summary) I went to a free workshop run by the Business Link people last week about finding and keeping customers. I wasn't sure about it before hand but actually ended up having a really good time and got a chance to talk a lot about my new business and how to give my customers a 5 star experience! All very exciting...so please keep an eye on how I'm getting on so you can be involved once I'm up and running (fingers crossed opening spring 2012!).


I've written a few posts recently about trying to complete all the various craft type projects I have on the go around the house. And continuing on my mission I've managed to get a few more things finished off over the last few weeks.


This is an Amy Butler  design for an afghan bolster cushion cover that I adapted a bit and decided to do a stripy design for the back. When we had the heat wave at the beginning of the month I had a lovely relaxing time sitting out in the sun finishing it off. 

 This is a Cath Kidson design from her new "Sew" book that my friend Amy gave for my birthday. It turned out really well, and I love that it is lined as well, makes it feel much more sturdy. Using it a a knitting bag at the moment but its solid enough to carry heavy things too so very versatile!

 A while back now I posted about the screen printed roman blind that I got finished and hung up in my studio/spare room. I had quite a few scraps and practice prints left over and it seemed a shame not to do anything with them so I made some cushions to match. I just appliquéd them onto a neutral background colour and made an envelope type fastening on the back and secured with self cover buttons. I also made a few of the practice prints into tote bags as well (not that I actually needed any more of them!)

 Some of you may recognise the design below from the Cross Stitcher July issue. I spotted it in Mollie Makes Magazine and thought they looked lovely. Its taken a while but managed to get to finished over the weekend. I used Japanese fabric that I bought from The Eternal Maker at the Knitting and Stitching Show to make the back and sides of the cushion. Its got parrots and peacocks on it - still loving' all the bird related stuff that out there at the moment!

I also eventually finished the dining chair that I've been hammering away at for what seams like ages! I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, even if I don't really have anywhere to put it at the moment. My little house is just about bursting at the seams with various bits of furniture that I've re-vamped or given a make over too. I've also seem to have made up so many different cushion covers over the last few months theres hardly any room for me left on the sofa!

So whats next?!?!? I've started making up the vintage knitting pattern that I found in the deepest darkest depths of my mum and dads garage......

Its meant to be made up in 3ply (which I've discovered doesn't really exist anymore unfortunately) so I'm using 4 ply instead and altered the needle size. I did a tension square to check so just going for it and I'll see what happens. If it ends up not fitting I'll use it as part of a display in my new shop! Just got the back panel rib done so far so watch this space for how I get on with it!

Heart screen printed tote bag - step by step pictures too!

Despite being just over a week of the month of love left I thought I'd share this post from the past about this hand screen printed bag I made last year. It has a 3 colour heart design and you can see how I got there with these step by step pictures. 

First of all I cut out the stencils - 3 for each colour.  

Getting all three stencils to line up was the tricky bit so I used this special fabric pen to draw round where I wanted each set of hearts to be. 

Then I ended up with purple hearts on my design. The ink fades when exposed to sunlight so I needn't worry about marker being all over my fabric! This picture shows the last stage of stencil so it was crucial for this one to line up so that the hearts didn't touch each other. 

I then looked through the screen to see where the hearts were. Using the squeegee the paint was forced through the screen - only to the areas exposed by the stencil. 

This is the completed print. I takes about 24 hours to dry then needs a good hot iron to seal the paint onto the fabric. 

I had pre cut my fabric to the size and shape to make a tote bag. 

The handles were reinforced with this 'cross in a box' stitching to make it extra strong for carrying heavy shopping. 

I also used this patterned bias binging to hide my raw seam edges inside to give it a neater finish. 

Its really handy for all sort of things and folds away easily in my hand bag too. I made 6 prints in total so have extra ones spare. I'm thinking of joining the 'giveaway gang' so if you would like to win this hand screen printed bag full of goodies then leave me a comment and keep an eye on the blog for further details!