This is the third part of a four-post series about crafts inspired by Todd Oldham’s book, Kid Made Modern published by Ammo Books. The previous two posts featured a cork effect vase and wooden spoon dolls. This week we made a cushion out of an old cotton sheet, which we hand printed with potato stamps.  To make the stamp we cut a potato in half and sliced a square form into the cut face. Then we dipped the potato stamp in the fabric paint and pressed it directly onto the fabric alternating colours to obtain a checkered effect.

The aim was to create the geometric patterns inspired by Marimekko, the house of textile design, featured in the Kid Made Modern book. The process however turned out to be quite messy and we had to adjust the original idea to cover up the accidental stains on one side of the fabric.

When painting fabric to create patterns directly without a stencil you need to accept a few imperfections. As we found out to our expense trying to remove unwanted tiny splatters of paint with water is the worst thing to do as the paint smudges over the fabric staining it. To cover up the mess on one of the corners, we had to change the original design by creating a pocket with some of the felt we had left over from all our Christmas crafts. In the end we were pleased with the result, but next time we print fabric we’ll resort to a stencil.

Check back next Monday for the final post in this series.