I've been dying to make David a pair of pants from the 8-shaft pinwheel pattern, but I always chicken out at the last minute because I'm afraid that the 4-thread float will be too long. But this time, I decided to not let it scare me! I made it out of 16/2 thread so it will be very fine fabric and also the 4-thread float can be very short! While weaving the pinwheel fabric, I decided that I really wanted to make a matching fabric, since the pants pattern I have takes two fabrics. But I had to think about what wouldn't clash with the already busy pinwheels. I chose plain weave with the green and one thread of the teal every 1/2". I wove 8 yards of the pinwheel fabric, and I'm currently working on weaving 5 yards of the plain fabric. I'm about 75% done with the plain weave!
While designing these fabrics, I decided that I really liked the designing part! I started thinking while weaving the fabric if I could actually print on fabric. After a little research, I found some ink that is oil-based, but cleans up with soap and water. It's the Speedball brand, and you have to let it set 1 week before washing. I just barely made the samples last week, but here they are! I just washed them up today and the ink seems to be holding ok! Here are my samples:
Hand-carved fox stamp:
Hand-carved orange stamp:
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