Photo from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of CraftsIf you've been reading for awhile, you know that I'm not exactly the craftiest chick on the block. But my daughter showed me this project from her beloved and already dog-eared copy of Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts, and even I was tempted to give it a try.
Martha (or, more accurately, Martha's army of people) used fabric that had been specially treated to become photo-sensitive to create textile cyanotypes, which were then used to recover a pair of chair seats.
Photo from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of CraftsSimply choose an object or set of objects you'd like to silhouette, lay them on the fabric, expose the fabric to the sun for a few minutes, and rinse in water to permanently set the image. Then use the resulting print to cover chair seats, sew up a throw pillow or table runner, stretch and staple around a canvas for instant fabric art, or for any number of other simple projects.
The cotton fabric is from Blue Sunprints, and costs $16 per yard.
P.S. For a similar effect on paper, check out the Sunprint Kit (a small set is $6 at the Curiosity Shoppe, or you can pick up a large set for $13 right here). I bought the paper as another gift for my creative daughter, and am planning to frame a collection of beautiful fern frond prints she made with it.
