Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Create a Fabric Book with the Gelli Arts� Patch Printing Kit

Hi there! It�s Marsha here today with a fun project you can make with the Gelli Arts� Patch Printing Kit.

The Gelli Arts� Patch Printing Kit includes everything you need to create fun fabric patches to embellish your jeans, jackets and backpacks: a 5�x5� Gelli Arts� printing plate, three colors of Gelli Arts� Premium Acrylic Paint, fabric medium, a Gelli Arts� mini comb, a 4� roller, fabric squares, iron-on tape, parchment paper, bubble wrap, yarn and punchinella.

But wait, there is more you can do with your printed fabric squares! How about creating a fun mini book?!

In addition to the contents of the kit, you will only need extra fabric, fusible web interfacing plus sewing and embroidery equipment.

Start with gel printing all of your patches. I used the 4� fabric squares from the kit and as well as about ten white cotton squares from my fabric stash.

Pre-wash and iron the fabric before printing. The paint will grab the cotton fibers a lot better when all sizing is washed out.

Place two pea-sized drops of acrylic paint on your Gelli Arts� gel printing plate and one drop of fabric medium. Roll the drops out on the plate with your roller and make sure you mix them well in the process.

If you are using a fabric medium from your own stash, follow the instructions on the bottle to make sure you are mixing the correct amount of paint/medium for the best result.

Press a texture tool into the paint. Use the 3-sided Gelli Arts� mini comb to create stripes, the bubble wrap to make a circle pattern, and the yarn to form fun organic shapes.

Lay a fabric patch on top of the plate and cover with a thin piece of (parchment) paper. Press with your hands to transfer the paint to the fabric.

Remove the paper and the fabric patch. Leave your gel printed fabric patch to dry.

Cut hand-drawn shapes out of parchment or printer paper to create masks and stencils. Keep the designs simple-you can always add stitched lines and details later on.

Wipe the plate clean with a damp cloth or a baby wipe whenever you want to change your paint color. Or you can try to pull a ghost print with the paint left on the plate!

You can even cut masks out of punchinella for a super fun effect.

Leave all of your gel printed fabric patches to dry entirely before heat setting the fabric for 30 seconds with an iron.

Consult the label of your fabric medium if you are using a different kind than included in the Gelli Arts� Patch Printing Kit.

Be sure to protect your ironing board with a cloth or parchment paper when ironing the patches. This will prevent the paint from accidentally staining the cover.

Cut fusible web to squares slightly smaller than 4� x 4�.

Place the rough side of a fusible web square on the wrong side of one of the fabric patches and iron for about 5 seconds. Repeat until all the gel printed patches are backed with fusible web.

To create the fabric mini book, you will need five 4.7" x 9" white cotton fabric strips for the pages and two strips of 5" x 12" for the covers.

Create a total of eleven 4� x 4� square designs to iron onto the fabric strips: ten for the inner pages and one for the cover.

Remove the backing from the fusible web and iron all of your fabric elements onto the base fabric. Use a damp cloth to protect your fabric from direct contact with your iron.

Hand-stitch the edges of the appliques and add decorative lines or details. Search the web or consult a book on needlework for a variety of stitches to try.

Keep going until you are satisfied with all of your pages!

Match up the two 5" x 12� strips of fabric (one with patch, one without patch).

Fold all of your inner pages, wrong sides together, and place them inside of the cover to see how much of the 12� length you need to trim. Cut the cover fabric to size.

Take the cover strip without the patch. Fold it in half. You can mark the center with a disappearing ink pen or pencil if you want. Mark the middle of the wrong side of each of the inner pages too.

(Machine) Stitch the pages to the �spine� of the cover strip without the patch, one at a time.

Start with the third page: the page you want to appear in the middle of the book. Place it, folded open, with the wrong side up, on top of the cover strip of fabric. Line up the marks in the center (use pins if needed) and stitch the page to the spine.

Now stitch around the page to hide the two wrong sides of the fabric.

Repeat for all of the pages.

Back the cover strip with the patch with fusible web. Remove the backing from the fusible web. Place the cover fusible web side up, and place the fabric book on top. Match up both cover strips.

Carefully iron the back cover for about 5 seconds and then repeat for the front cover. Use a damp cloth to protect your fabric if needed.

Blanket stitch along the edges of the cover to finish your fabric book!

Materials:

Gelli Arts� Patch Printing Kit

Other:

Printer paper

Pencil

Scissors

White cotton fabric

Fusible web (Bondaweb, Vliesofix, Heatnbond)

Embroidery thread

Embroidery needle

Optional: