"SLC-S25/W1 | Basic tools /How to trace design on fabric "|

When I saw what are entailed in this challenge, my mind took me to the famous Veekee James, a Nigerian fashionista who has hit the net with her stunning styles of clothes. Some people call it art. Why did I remember her? She do paint her fabrics too. Painting her fabrics gives her a taste of colour grading and she does so perfectly. For this challenge, I'd be painting a fabric as the case may be.

At first I didn't want to participate in this challenge because of the materials involved. Barely did a trader in my area knew what a binder was or a frame as circular as this. Even when I went to an art store that's close to my residential area, those materials weren't available. It would require me going extra miles and resources to get these materials in town. Fabric paint couldn't be found as well. I'll need to visit top stores in town to get these materials.

So I had to improvise because of the unavailability these materials. I solicit for my use of improvised materials for this fabric paint challenge. These are the materials I could get from the store and the materials I improvised.

These are the materials I improvised the unavailable materials with

The available materials

The materials I bought recently was the colour paint. I had other materials available

Having prepared all these materials to be used for my fabric paint, I went ahead with the first step as shown in the tutorials. I couldn't use the second because it would require a stencil and this isn't readily available where I stay. Hopefully next week, I would reach for these materials in town even though it would cost me.

• As instructed, I went on with a cotton material as I've not tried this before. I placed my cotton material on my frame and straightened it with the side clips to hold the fabric in place. After doing so, I placed my carbon paper on the fabric and used my pencil in drawing the flower. I used my tutor's design at some point and then integrated mine.

• After drawing the flower on the carbon paper, I took it off and checked what I drew and how the carbon paper was able to make the lines visible. Without further ado, I switched to my colours and tried mixing it. First of all, I dissolved the pink paint with water as it was in its solid form. After dissolving, I placed some of the liquid on the cover of the colour container and then did some mixtures. I mixed pink with yellow and it gave me coffee brown.

• I then used pink to colour the petals and black to colour the pedicle. After colouring with those two major colours, I did design with the brown and black and also made a swill round the bottom of the pedicle. It may look weird but the down part is an extension though.

• After colouring, I aired it for 8 hours starting from 2pm to 10pm in the night. This was when I checked on it if it's dry and to my surprise, it was dry and got stucked on the fabric. I then used my iron to press the back side if the fabric so as not to affect the paint.

While wet, there were free particles on the fabric that didn't make it look smooth. Drying the fabric for 8 hours made it smooth automatically and removed those rough particles that made the painting look like sand. I know most participants overlooked this drying step for 8 hours as they still had impurities on their fabric's paint. The essence of drying and pressing with an iron is for smoothing what we did and giving it essence. It also helps in its longevity on the fabric.

I faced difficulties handling the improvised materials as the original material would have been more comfortable to use and navigate but still, I tried to make hay from every situation. I'm a local boy and is used to improvising a lot of things. Even though I may not have the desired result, I'll have an 80% mark. Like I said earlier, I found it difficult to purchase the required materials in town because of transportation. Where I stay, these materials aren't sold. Even an art shop doesn't have them. But regardless of the improvisation, I made hay while the sun shine

I'm absolutely satisfied with this creativity. I didn't feel or see any stress in the painting. It's far more easy and simpler than bresting designs and joining fabrics with different colours. Fabric painting makes me feel like I'm designing my best dress. I feel less stress while carrying out this activity.

Compared to other creativity like drawing and shading that requires time to visualise how the shape and size of a thing can be drawn, fabric paint is more of focus like patterning. Mistakes can't be undone. You just have to pay maximum attention to the lines and edges. This is my final result. The pictures include me, trying to paint the edges before checkmating the main body.

How do you see the painting? I invite @enamul17, @yhudy and @crismenia

Cc,
@sualeha