Those of you that have worked with oloring fabrics--- I am having kids color blocks of muslin. I am heat setting them with my iron. Is there another process that I should use , to help set the color? This will be a quilt for a charity raffle and I don't want the color to fade or wash out. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Elaine

How are you doing it? If you are using crayons; Canola (?) is the best to use Ounce the color is set it dose not fade. Just use pleanty of paper towles to get the wax out. Moms's job.

I think it is easier to have the children use permanent fabric markers. That way you don't have to iron to get the wax out. You do have to iron to heat-set the markers, I think.

Crayons are fairly pale after the wax is out. You could be disappointed if you are expecting brilliant colors similar to crayons on paper. The result on fabric is beautiful, but definitely pastel.

Both markers and crayons require a lot of work if the children are doing "filler" areas with solid colors. It takes time. They might have to color a solid area in 3 or 4 directions to fully cover up the background fabric.

For either crayons or markers, it's a good idea to iron freezer paper to the back of the fabric before cutting into squares. This way the fabric won't wiggle and squirm while the children are working with it.

I haven't done it, but I would also consider using paints/dyes rather than crayons or markers, especially if you could set up a table outside for the children to work on. Requires a little more expertise on your part, as you would have to show them how to use mordant to outline their shapes before painting. There are fabric paints/dyes that are pretty easy to use and can be heat-set.

Important!!! Whatever you decide to use, draw a border inside the cut square so the children do not color out to the edges. Otherwise the edges of their pictures could end up in the seam allowances!

If you use coloring book pages and permanent markers, place the pages on top of the fabric that has been ironed onto freezer paper. Sew with heavy black thread all of the lines of the page including the border. Tear off the coloring page and then they can color, stay in the lines and the black thread absorbs the markers so they don't bleed as bad into the next color :wink:

My Girl Scout troop used iron-on crayons to make sweatshirts for their mothers several years ago and mine is still holding up.

With iron-on crayons, the kids color on paper and then you iron it on the fabric. There are no other steps to the process.

The one thing to remember is letters will be reversed when ironed on. If they want to do letters, trace them on the paper backwards before they color.

once you've heat set your blocks brush on textile medium - it will keep the colors sharp even after numerous washings.

i use it all the time for my painted fabrics - you can find it at any art store.

Be careful the permanent markers bleed. I recommend making a test block first.

I put a coating of fabric medium on the fabric first and then the paint or markers will not bleed into each other. There is an excellent book on this subject using everything from colored pencils to gel pens on quilts.

Quilts of a Different Color