Making an easy "Silk Screen"

In the Oct/Nov issue of Quilting Arts Magazine there was an article on making Paper Lamination Stencils.  You'll find it on page 58.  I read and read the article several times.  While Carolyn Abbott calls these stencils, I'm calling them easy silk screens.

For my first one I used part of a sheer window curtain. I have this in my stash just for making my "silk" screens.  I chose to use freezer paper for my resist.  I also used matte gel medium.  It took a couple of days because there is a drying process where I left it over night.  If I had used a resist other than freezer paper, it may have taken some time off the preparation.

I tore freezer paper into strips and laid them down on top of
my fabric.

Making the strips seemed to take forever..... I'd do some other way next time.

Ironing them down.  Be careful to keep your iron cool enough to avoid
melting the fabric.

Lay newspaper down first then put your fabric with resist on top of it. Resist side up.
I put the gel medium on my squeegee and pulled it across.
Make sure you cover the entire piece of fabric.

There many brands of gel medium.  This is just what is locally available to me.

This is where the piece has to dry overnight.  Yes the newspaper is stuck to
the fabric.

Next day... crumple the fabric and newspaper and put into a bucket of cool water
for 10 minutes.  then pull it out, squeeze out some water and place on a flat surface,
newspaper side up.  Now, remove the newspaper.  This took some time and made a mess.

After scrubbing the newspaper side I turned the fabric over and removed the freezer paper.
this came off pretty easy.

It was time to soak the piece again, and remove some more of the newspaper.
I ended up soaking the fabric/paper three times.

Most all of the newspaper is removed.  Time to dry it again, this didn't take as long
The next step is to put parchment paper on top of it and iron it.

All ironed .

I trimmed the edges.

So that I would have something to hold onto, I put duck tape around the edges.
 I just covered  about 1/4" to 1/2" of the fabric with tape.
Then turned it over and covered the other side so no sticky tape showed.

Time to try my screen out., so I mixed up some textile paint.

Put my screen over fabric that has been pinned down to my printing
pad. (made from a 2'X2' ceiling tile covered with batting and cotton fabric.)
For printing I put the paint onto my squeegee and pulled it across while
holding the screen in place.

And this is the result.

I've moved the screen, covering the wet paint with newspaper,
and pulled the screen again.

A close up.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the results.  this makes a good size screen.  I had all the materials on hand so the cost was $0.  I think I'll work up a few more.

Sew see you later,

Bette