City sun print

I started a new project today, with a stencil I'd been coveting for ages. It's a map of Paris, but I chose it simply because of the lines. Parts of them look straight and logical, while others are a bit squiggly - a favourite look of mine.

To start, I painted my fabric with violet sun dye fabric paint. I didn't want colour variation, although I was tempted to mix in some other shades (grevillea, I'm looking at you!).

Once that was done, I placed the stencil on the fabric and laid it in the sun.

Of course, I could have done this earlier today, but no. I waited until the afternoon when, as soon as I painted the fabric, a strong wind started. I had to weigh the fabric down and stand around to quickly remove every leaf that fell on the fabric. (Curse you eucalyptus tree!)

Once the fabric had dried, I removed the stencil and ironed the fabric.

This is to be a background, so I don't really need crisp lines, although I can see how beautifully clear they would be if I weighed the fabric and stencil down on a perfectly flat surface instead of the ground. In this case, I like the more subtle ghost effect in a lot of the piece.