| When you are involved in creating your own fabric | | | | and fabric tied to a pole. Resists for dyeing include |
| designs for art quilts, wearable art, or embellishment on | | | | wax, as in batik, flour paste and washable school glue |
| ready-to-wear clothing, you may find it hard to | | | | (cold water dyes or paints only), and gutta or paint |
| remember what works and what doesn't. That's when | | | | resist which stay on the fabric and are used with |
| having a fabric journal pays off. Just like a writer's | | | | fabric paints to stop the color from bleeding from one |
| journal or an artist's sketchbook, a fabric sample | | | | area to another. |
| journal is the place to explore designs and techniques | | | | Make mini-samplers. Try out your hand embroidery |
| and serves as a creative reference tool. | | | | stitches and techniques by making mini-samplers. |
| Start with a couple of yards of pure white, 100% | | | | Reinforce the cotton fabric squares with lightweight |
| cotton fabric. Wash in hot water and dry without using | | | | fusible interfacing ironed on the back and you won't |
| fabric softener. The pre-wash takes care of any | | | | need an embroidery hoop. |
| fabric finishes applied by the manufacturer and will | | | | Once you have a pile of samples, arrange them by |
| pre-shrink the fabric. Then cut the yardage into small | | | | technique or by color. You can tie them together at |
| sample sizes, either six inch or eight inch squares work | | | | one edge as in book form, or clip a small hole in the |
| best. | | | | top left corner and thread them onto a metal O ring |
| Find out which of your stamps and stencils give you | | | | found at office supply stores. |
| the best results. Gather up all your stamps and stencils | | | | To create the most informative sample journal, mount |
| and clean them off if you used them for other craft | | | | each sample on a piece of poster board cut to ring file |
| projects. Using low-cost fabric paints, use a different | | | | binder size. Write down details, such as the name of |
| repeat design on each sample or use a combination of | | | | the technique or stitch, which dyes or paints were |
| stamps and stencils on your sample squares. Try | | | | used, and any problems or successes you had with a |
| different color combinations e.g. one-color, two-color, all | | | | specific resist. |
| shades of one color, warm colors, cool colors, etc. | | | | Keeping a fabric journal helps you remember which |
| Preview fabric dyeing techniques. Shibori are tie-dye or | | | | fabric surface design techniques you like and which |
| bound resist techniques including folding and gathering, | | | | ones you might want to improve. |
| tight running stitches in either straight lines or patterns, | | | | |