painting on fabric
 

I need a tie dye fabric that i haven't seen. Maybe some of you have seen the Easter table runner that is tie dyed or batiked with the 3 crosses on it. It has purples, blues, yellow, orange and a tad of red. the crosses are black against the backdrop. the same design is repeated on the other side. how do you think the fabric dying will hold up if i use acrylic paints watered down???
I'm sure most of you have gotten the acrylic paint on fabric, and it never washed out. So my thinking is to water it down and brush it on. Either that, or i need to tye dye this color combination. Oh, and i need 3 runners, about 12 x 45. What do you all think about this?? Thanks for your help.

I have used acrylics on fabric in a number of ways: you can mix it with a textile medium, paint, let it dry and then heat set with an iron. You can put some acrylic in water and soak the fabric (kind of like dying, but using the acrylic paints), and this will wash out to a lighter color depending on how much paint you put in the water. If you just water down the acrylic paint and paint on as usual, without the textile medium, even with heat setting, you will likely lose quite a bit of color. A cool alternative now is to use colored pencils, best ones are by Derwent, called Inktense, color with them, like on paper, and then paint over with a textile medium. Colors become really intense, and permanent.
If going for something like a tiedye, you'd want to use the sticks as opposed to the pencils though.

There are the same manufacturers that makes felt markers that would work if a textile medium was used. Just check michael's crafts to see the selection of art kits on sale now. I like the Inktense.

There are paints specifically made for fabrics. As well as the fabric markers that were already mentioned. You might want to check out Dharma trading. They are online. You can buy supplies through them but even if you don’t they have a lot of information about the textile dyes and paints and how to use them.

In doing research for painting on fabric, I discovered that you shouldn't water down acrylic more than 25% or the paint will break down. Not sure how helpful this little fact is, but that's my contribution.

Watson

thank you everyone. i need a yard to make 3 table runners about 12 x 45. i will see if i can find it at the suggested site. if not, i guess i'll be dying fabric on my front lawn. (i live in a condo and only have a front lawn).
thank you everyone and have a safe and blessed holiday.

I used acrylic paints and the textile medium from Martha Steward, to tone down the colours added a small amount of white. You will need a paint brush where the bristles are cut at an angle, to help get into those small areas. I found the Derwent pencils too intense, unless you really like the vibrant colors, they are also good to use.