Fabric Fondue

Do we all have a secret desire to play with matches and burn things? How about playing with heat guns, soldering irons and wood burning tools? Add fabric, tyvek and assorted synthetic items and you could have a fabric fondue party. Which is what we did today.

Julie, Rebecca and Sharon. Through the magic of Photoshop, I was able cut and paste two pictures together so Julie would have her eyes open, and my double chin would be invisible. Sharon looked perfect in both shots.

As always, Sharon came prepared with lots of samples of painted tyvek, painted paper-backed fusible, painted Misty Fuse, and an assortment of fabrics painted with "puffy paint." I remember Puff Paint in the 1980's. You found it in small bottles at the craft store. You could write on a sweatshirt, iron it from the back and the writing (or picture) puffed up? Well now one brand is called Setacolor Expandable "Puff" Medium. Similar stuff and very cool.

Earlier in the week, we went to Marietta Fabric and Fringe Warehouse and bought yards of opalescent sheers. This fabric is crazy, the more you layer it, the more it changes colors. With a bag full of the sheers, and a collection of assorted tulles and netting, we went to town. I think we enjoyed the heat gun the most. The results were easier to control and the way the fabrics shrunk and fused was very cool.

Here are some of the results:

Multi-layers of sheers, fused, melted with heat gun.

Paper backed fusible, painted, then fused to fabric, covered with sheers and melted with heat gun.

Two more examples of multiple layers of sheers, fused and melted with heat gun. A wood burning tool was used to cut through the fabric, then the whole thing was fused to another piece. The bottom layer showed through the cutout design. One of our favorites of the day.

Here are the results of the Setacolor Puff Medium. Sharon painted it onto water soluble paper, blasted it with the heat gun, then let the paper soak off in water.

The green is multiple layers of sheers and tulle melted with the heat gun. The blue is a piece of upholstery fabric. The fibers were so dense, that the whole thing melted together and the color remained intact.

Tyvek, sheers and tulle. The tyvek was painted with Lumiere glitter, and then the whole thing was blasted with the heat gun.





Painted Tyvek. This stuff is fun to work with and really reacts well to heat.