While scoping out what’s soon to be our local grocery store (though we’re hoping to go back to 90% market shopping, with only one monthly supermarket run) on Easter weekend, my boyfriend and I found a screenprinting kit in the kids’ arts & crafts aisle at Tesco, for a mere £7! As you’re well aware, I do loads of sewing, but I’ve never tried screenprinting before since the amount of startup materials always seemed so intimidating.
The kit looks pretty good for the money, with a reusable plastic ~6×8 inch frame and locked-in roller system and a cover to keep the mess inside, two mesh polyester screens, two pots of glue (for blocking out the negative), 3 colours of fabric paint, and a bunch of gross paper stencils we’ll throw away. So it looks like we’ll only need to replace the mesh screens and the glue/paints as we use through them, fingers crossed.
I’m not hoping for professional grade quality for something so cheap, but I’m hoping it’ll do the job, anyway… I’m foreseeing using it to decorate future articles of clothing in unexpected ways, with interesting printed designs of woven fabrics, like some painted swallows on a button-down shirt, or a creeping vine up the side of an A-line skirt. I really can’t wait to break out the scrap fabric, and this has given me a new incentive to clear away some moving boxes and set up my temporary sewing room on the boat!
*Anyone who gets the Hot Chip reference can award themselves 10 points.