NEW WAY TO MAKE SCREENS FOR PRINTING

 Yesterday the Fiber Junkies (we missed you Val....who is basking in the Florida sun!) met at Gen's for our snow-makeup day.  

Kate organized our fun project: creating our own 'silk screens' for printing.  It's especially helpful for those of us who do not own Thermofax machines.

 Basically, instead of burning an imagine into the sheer fabric, the design is cut into Therm O Web Vinyl which can be adhered with an iron.

 We each came with a line drawing/idea.  Here's mine.....okay so I can't draw!!

The sketch could be traced onto the paperbacked vinyl or simply used as a visual guideline, which is what I did.  After taping the corners to a cutting mat, this tiny rotary cutting tool made fast work of cutting out the lines.  

 I tried using a box cutter (yellow tool above) but I didn't have sufficient control.  Judy was working on a more intricate design and ended up using a small Olfa cutter (blue tool above) that Kate brought.  Though I didn't try it, I wonder if a small sharp to the point embroidery scissors may work too??  Please share your cutting tricks if you've tried this method.....

Once the design was cut, it was placed paper side up on a sheer fabric.  We found that the stiffer that fabric was...the better.  Initially I tried using this piece of sheer drapery fabric (note the hem on the right edge), but once the paper was removed, it was almost impossible to get the vinyl positioned and secured properly on this wiggly fabric.

 After the vinyl was temporarily secured/positioned on the sheer, it was covered with parchment paper and pressed.....about 8 seconds in each section, then turned over and another 3-4 seconds on each section on the back side.

The edges were trimmed, allowing the sheer to extend about 1 inch + beyond on all four sides.  Heavy duty tape is applied to the edges to prevent unraveling and a tidy edge for screen printing.

Tomorrow I'll show you the printing process and our results.....