How to Paint Scarves
If you are looking to combine your love of fashion with your creative side, painting scarves may be just the hobby you're craving. With some practice, you can design and make beautiful scarves in a variety of colors and endless designs. Whether you keep them for yourself, give them as gifts or hang them up as decoration, everyone will be asking where to scarves just like them. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Plain silk scarf
- Pencil
- Gutta or resist (a latex substance that prevents paint or dye from reaching the fabric)
- Water bottle filled with half water and half rubbing alcohol
- Silk dyes or paints
- Paint brushes of various sizes
Instructions
-
-
1
Trace the design you will be creating in pencil on your scarf.
-
2
Stretch out your scarf. You will need to pin it down so it does not move when you are painting. Pin it down on a flat surface or tack it up to a wall. Don't overstretch the scarf, but make sure it is tightly secured.
-
-
3
Apply the gutta or resist on the outline you traced. This will prevent the different colors from running into each other on the scarf.
-
4
Spray your scarf evenly with the water and rubbing alcohol mix from your spray bottle.
-
5
Start painting with your brushes. Fill in your design first (flowers, for example) and save the background color for last. If you are overlapping paints, wait until one layer is dry before moving on to paint the next. Blend colors by having them overlap on the edges.
-
6
Wait until your entire scarf is completely dry. Remove the gutta or resist. It will come off easily.
-
7
Set the colors in the scarf by following the directions given with your paints or dyes. Depending on the brand, you may have to steam it or spray it with a finisher. Usually you can wrap the scarf in newspaper, steam it, and then rinse out the scarf to remove any excess paint.
-
8
Iron your scarf. It is now ready to wear or hang up as decoration.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you want to paint just for fun with no specific design in mind, paint without the gutta and don't draw pencil outlines either.
Always follow the directions given on the paints. Each type of paint or dye may have different preparation or drying directions.
References
- Photo Credit sillk scarves image by Adrian Hillman from Fotolia.com
