Making "Fabric paper"

EDIT: Feb 26/09 This artile also has been in ATASDA's newsletter. 

Now i know there are lots of articles in Quilting Arts and ClothPaperScissors and recipes galore for this item, but i can't find any online. If you've been looking, here are some basic instructions then!

What you need:

a large sheet of plastic----this is your "work area"

thin fabric like cheesecloth, scrim, thin cotton or polycotton----this is the "base" fabric; start with at least a couple chunks, two feet square is manageable and gives you a good size to work with during and after when you want to create something with it--- i used a crappy polycotton sleeze that was perfect for this and nothing else!

white glue----yes Elmer's type; you will water it down to about the consistency of cream--if it's more watery, don't worry; as long as there is a reasonable proportion of glue to water, things will stick! Mine was quite runny.

You'll need a cheap brush or two to "baste"  with and some for your paints too.

Bits and pieces, scraps, shreds of paper--tissue, newspaper, artpaper, whatever----threads, snips of fabric, feather bits---cut the main "spine" out----glitter, mica flakes, anything goes, but NOT anything that will be
lumpy---start a box with all this; there is nothing more frustrating than getting the gluey sheet ready and realizing the stuffs ya want on it are in the back of the closet behind the dryer under the stairs in the basement. Ask me.

Paints of some sort--liquid acrylic  like the cheap dollar store bottle type or your ^shudder  good fabric paints--i use a combination of both---these pieces are NOT going to be washed! Alternately you can use dyes.

Pieces of organza, sheers, cheesecloth or thin see through fabric for top layer.

Are you wearing your messyinthemudplayingwithfireanddirt clothes? Go put them on.

Water your glue down. Spread your plastic. Paint the plastic with an even layer of the glue. Lay your base fabric on the gluey plastic and squish it flat so the glue penetrates all of it. You can  baste  with more glue if needed. Don't worry about wrinkles, just gives more texture! Now start sprinkling or placing bits of thread and snips of fabric, torn and crumpled but flattened pieces of paper, feather shreds, what have you. You want some texture, but not big bumps or lumps.

You want colour other than the ones ya got? Start dripping, smearing, spraying, brushing your paints on----areas can touch, overlap, blend or not. Don't get really really thick; you want some pliabilty when it's done!  Sprinkle the glitter now if you want.

Take your top layer and lay over the whole. Squash it down; it's going to bleed through, things will slide a bit so don' t get neurotic about "control"--it's a spontaneous "blending" of the elements. Make it as flat as you can so it will adhere, but don't  make it steamroller flat !Leave the whole mess on the plastic and move it somewhere safe to dry. You don't want cat hair, cheerios, the tv remote or your DH's backside on it while it dries.

Now comes the hard part. Wait. Wait some more. Wait some more more. Let it dry at least 24 hours on the plastic sheet. Unless you have an area that's really warm and it dries faster. It mUST be BONEDRY before you work with it next! 

Ta Da!!!!!! It's dry! Take it in your studio now--cut it, make it into leaves or boxes or journal pages, stitch it, quilt it, bead it, bend it, burn it, add more layers of fabric, embroidery stitches, more paper-----make something from it! 

Some samples of mine can be seen here: http://arleebarr.squarespace.com/designjournal/2006/11/6/
ooo-oooo-ooooooo-oooooooo-.html 

This will also be posted in my TUTORIALS section for future reference, as it is "printer friendly" there . That is here:   http://arleebarr.squarespace.com/tutorialstechniquesprojects/2006/11/7/
making-fabric-paper.html

Update on Sun, October 14, 2007 at 10:10AM by arlee

http://arleebarr.squarespace.com/designjournal/2007/10/14/wip.html   To see work that is part of a current "challenge" with the Fibre and Stitch group, using fabric paper (made in Nov/06) being used in Oct/07 :}

Comments

[Vicky]

Hey Arlee, I did a variant on this too (last winter). Mine is at: http://seastrands.wordpress.com/2006/01/04/back-to-work/

I used my fabric paper to make topographical map-based pieces....

[Micki]

Thanks for this great tutorial, Arlee.

[Emmy]

Thank you very much I wil try when I have a little time left

[Debra]

Wonderful tutorial, Arlee. I hope I get to play with this soon.

[arlee]

Thanks all for the comments! Check out Vicky's page also, if you'd prefer to work with dyes. I found with the paints, i had to tip the page a little, let some areas "run" and manipulate a bit with brushes or toothpicks--depends on the effect you want.

[kim]

Thanks for the info, Arlee. I'll have to give it a try!

[Annette]

Arlee, thank you for sharing this with us!

[Di]

Found this page via SharonBs inaminuteago blog. Thank you for this. I've been longing to make some 'paper'. This has given me the know how, how to!!

[Wen Redmond]

wonderful post on a cool subject- truly mixing it up with mixed media. Have you tried it with liquid gel medium? Great sense of humor!!

[Betsy]

Can I use this recipe to make the fabric paper like Michael Miller sells? It's basically his fabrics turned into fabric paper.

[arlee]

Betsy, I don't see anything remotely like "fabric paper" on his website-----if you mean he sells what he *calls* "fabric paper", are you sure it isn't just his fabric designs printed *on* paper? If it is, it ain't fabric paper :} So i'd say no, you can't. Besides which, if you copy his designs, that's copyright infringement! The idea with this is to create your OWN designs.

[Stickigaltech]

thank you very much for this tutorial, it's magic and just what I was looking for to use up the ends of my bag making fabric that are good for NOTHING!
I love it and I love your work, so inspirational!

[Hester Able]

Your "Tutorial Section" was not found by my computer, so I printed this whole mess. No problem, but I thought you'd want to know.

Hester Able
Otto, NC

EDIT May 19/09 from arlee: link fixed, sorry!!!

[Coffeemonkey]

Thank you so much for your tutorial. I have been looking for an easy recipe. **Off to play in my "ugly" clothes** Thanks again!