Who doesn’t like super simple? I know lots of our followers aren’t fans of the sewing machine. How this can possibly be, I just can’t understand. I mean, doesn’t everyone dream in fabric like I do? I start to wonder about non-sewers and my mind just goes into a blank dark place and I have to have a Pepsi Throwback STAT to come back to normal. But I guess there are people who don’t like to sew. Ouch. That hurt to even type out.
This was so easy, that I won’t fault you for wanting to try it. It was super simple and quick. The hardest part was wrestling with the contact paper. I am not kidding. It should be a sport like putting a sports bra should be a full exercise, but I digress.
Get yourself some contact paper, a ruler, paper cutters, paint, stencil brushes or dauber, and your material. (This would also look super cute with black rick-rack glued around the border, but you know I don’t like glue, so I didn’t do it…although, I REALLY was tempted to buy a glue gun to try it out.) When I did my little post about Smart-Fab, I was left wondering if you could really paint on it. Yes, you can! If you don’t have Smart-Fab, don’t worry. This would be totally cute on burlap or any other coarse weave fabric.
Start by making your template with your contact paper. I am a huge fan of pinwheel quilts so I went with a pinwheel pattern for this. Essentially, you could do any kind of design. I drew out a square on the paper side of the contact paper. Then I drew diagonal lines and then a horizontal and vertical lines intersecting in the middle. I just cut out every other triangle and left the negative ones attached.
Since the contact paper wanted to roll on me, I used a (gasp) glue stick (it is my kid’s glue, honest) to the cut contact paper to hold it for positioning. Think about transfer tape used to install vinyl. That is basically what I did here. Apply the contact paper, sticky side down on your fabric.
Using a fairly dry paint, carefully daub the paint on. I just used acrylic craft paint. Make sure you have a washable surface under the fabric incase it bleeds through. When stenciling, make sure you don’t shove the paint under the stencil. Move the paint away from the edges of the template.
Remove the contact paper and admire you quick paint job! It was super quick for me because I didn’t make sure it was perfectly painted on.
I added some polka-dots to every other pinwheel and Viola! You are done! Took less than an hour. Most of the wasted time, as I stated above, was wrestling with the contact paper to make it lay nicely on the fabric. The edges are not stitched one bit. Just cut evenly with the dimensions I wanted for my little table.
You could totally do this with freezer paper, or vinyl if you have either of those. I just happened to have contact paper handy.
Enjoy! Let me know how much you loved this quick project and send me pictures of your finished projects. Hurry up. You could totally have one (or five) of these done in a jiffy!
~Anjeanette
This is another project using Smart-Fab! I have to say what a fun medium this is turning out to be. I don't have to worry about the edges unraveling on this and there was no sewing needed!