Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

How to make a stencilled door curtain.

Curtains aren’t just for windows.

 

Beat the chills with this creative and practical door curtain project.

What you will need:

• A large piece of fabric to stencil
• A large piece of lining fabric
• Sewing machine
• Pins
• Fabric scissors
• measuring tape

Start by measuring the size of your door to work out the size of the fabric you will need. Remember your curtain will need to have extra length or header tape and a deep hem. The total width for your curtain including the side panels should be the width of your doorway plus a half, for extra weight use twice the width. 

 

Now to stencil the fabric.

Firstly launder and iron your fabric, then apply a light coat of SprayMount or similar repositioning adhesive onto a flat surface to hold fabric in place while you’re stenciling. Choose your desired colours and stencils. We used ‘blossom’ one of 15 card stencils in the ‘Stencil it’ book. Alternatively this stencil is for sale in various sizes from The Stencil Library.   Apply a light mist of SprayMount  to the back of the stencil and press into position.

Use good quality stencil brushes and paint suitable for fabric. Work any excess paint from the brush onto paper towel, you only need a little amount of paint to stencil with.

Stencil in a circular motion to ensure a light, even coverage and build up the colour as you go,

We chose to stencil our design to look like the blossoms were falling in a descending pattern towards the floor.

How to make the curtain:

Take your now stenciled fabric together with your lining fabric, remember taking into account the seam allowance. Lay the lining fabric on top of the curtain: right side’s together. Pin the two pieces in place. Sew Along each side with the seam allowance. Hem the bottom of your curtain.

Now you want to turn your curtain right side up.   We sewed header tape to our door curtain which allowed us to gather the fabric then we attached metal hanging rings to it. and hung it from a portiere rod. If you’re working with a curtain pole you can attach rings or just fold over the top edge and make pocket for the pole to go through. Pin in place and sew.

This is what a portiere rod looks like.

A portiere rod raises the curtain as the door opens so that the movement is not impeded by fabric dragging on the floor.

and allows it to drop when the door is closed ensuring a snug fit to keep out draughts. A deep hem helps to further reduce draughts.

The heavy, cotton velvet came from Factory Fabrics in Prudhoe. The curtain was sown and stencilled by students Melanie, Laura and Ashley. The project was written by Ashley and I and photographed by me.

 

 

A reformed character

My name is Dyane Brown, a second year student from Newcastle College.

I am currently on a work placement at The Stencil Library.

I attempted stencilling back in the 80's when it was the latest fad. I quickly went off it due to the rubbish stencils that were available at the time and not really knowing what I was doing.

I now have a new found love for stenciling having being taught the correct way to do it by the Lovely Helen Morris. The vast range of very clever intricate stencils produced by her husband the genius Mr Chips has given me a whole new way at looking at stencilling and the creative ways you can use them. We have recently been making samples of the new cross stitch rose stencil.

Although I have quite a good knowledge of colour pallets and mixing colours I was quite surprised at how different the colors look when used with stencils onto backgrounds of varying colours

 

A good tip that Helen shared is to paint a piece of lining paper with your chosen background colour and test your stencil onto it before you do it onto the wall. This way it gives you a better idea of how it will look when finished and you can change any colours that you're not sure about. This saves you from repainting your wall and having to start again if the colours are all wrong! So if like me you have been put off stencilling in the past, give it another go, you might end up loving it and become a stencil convert like me!

Dyane

Vintage Vs Contemporary

My name is Laura; I am one of the design students currently working with Helen Morris here at The Stencil Library. Following the preparation and decoration of the Christmas house tour, we have been working on creating room sets. I thought I would share our progress with you.  

A room set shows the stencil in context.  Here I have tried to combine contemporary and vintage with the modern vase and the vintage side table. The flash of orange in the flower offers a great contrast to the sullen grays of the Elizabethan stencil on the wall. 

Here I have created a retro kitchen set.  The lily of the valley stencil is VN156. I love the contrast between the blue tea pot and the yellow wall. I went with the white table to draw the eye to the stenciled wall and the tea pot.

There you have it, 2 simple room sets fit for a page in a glossy magazine, I hope you will agree.

Laura

 

Amazing Butterfly Plates

Hi, my name is Louise I recently started my work placement with Helen Morris at The Stencil Library. On the second day of my placement Helen took us on a little field trip to visit an amazing home accessories store called RE in Corbridge, near Stocksfield. This store is tucked away down one of the side streets, and what a find it is. When entering the store you are met with an array of fantastically put together displays, each depicting a different style in its own way.

 

What really caught my attention were the vintage blue and white plates re-fired with bold, coloured butterflies on them. I think this is a great way to modernise more traditional patterns and make them unique.

I felt inspired by these plates and would like to try making something similar myself. To do this I would choose a beautiful stencil and apply it onto a Willow Pattern plate. These blue and white patterned plates can often be found at car boot sales, antiques stores or even charity stores. Helen has lots of butterfly stencils.  The  vintage butterfly plates from RE can be bought mail order too, each one is different.

Louise.

 

How to make a stencilled draught excluder.

A creative way to keep chills at bay this winter is to make a draught excluder.

Start by measuring the width of your door. Your draught excluder needs to be longer then your door width. This is important as to ensure the draught excluder is a snug fit and keeps the draught out.

We chose a sausage style shape with drawstrings either side for a decorative style. We also made a removable cover, but that's just because we're posh. We used wadding as a filler, but you can just stuff it with old rags pushed into stockings or tights.

For our outer cover we used a black velvet to create a luxurious look.

Factory Fabrics of Prudhoe is an excellent source for lengths of velvet.

How to stencil the fabric:

Launder and iron your fabric. After ensuring the material is crease free apply a light coat of Spraymount onto a smooth work surface and smooth the fabric onto it. The slight tack on the surface ensures that the material stays in place while stenciling. Apply another light mist of Spraymount to the back of the stencil and position it onto the fabric.  Lining the stencil against the selvedge is handy if a straight line is needed. 

Work off any access paint onto paper towel, then stencil in light circular motions, building up the colour as you go. Repeat the stencil by using the registration marks. We used SIB19-S Elizabethan stencil. A slightly smaller version of the same stencil is included in 'Stencil It' by Helen Morris.  A matt off-white acrylic paint was chosen to contrast against the black velvet. 

Now you have stenciled the fabric , here is how to make the draught excluder...

We started by making our inner 'sausage' for the excluder.

Take a material such as cotton (an old pillow case or sheet could be ideal) cut out a rectangular shape, depending on how fat you want the draught excluder to be. Mark 1.5cm  inwards from both sides of the rectangle. This is the seam allowance. With right sides together pin and stitch the seams to make one long strip. Leave a gap for turning through. Cut out two circles, these will be the ends of the draught excluder. pin and stitch the circles to both ends. Turn though. Stuff it and stitch up the gap. You now have a smart,  lump free, sausage shape.

Make the cover: Take your stenciled material and wrap around the sausage shape. Not too tight, leave a lose fit. Mark where the ends meet, draw a line. Now fold over the top and bottom of the material. Pin and sew. This is where the drawstrings will thread through. Fold the fabric so stencilled sides are together. Pin and sew along the marked line leaving a 7cm gap half way. Iron seams and turn through. Stuff the basic sausage shape into the stenciled cover. Sew the gap using a blind stitch and matching thread. Cut out two neat circles from velvet, slightly bigger than the ends of the sausage shape. Choose a cord or a strong ribbon for your drawstrings. Turn through so the stencilled side is now showing. Thread drawstrings and tuck the circles into place over both ends. Pull tightly and finish with a decorative bow.

You can even get fancy and add a loop or a hanging tab for storage purposes.

The ends are ruched together to give a decorative effect.

Top Tips:

1. When ironing velvet, place fuzzy sides together so as not to crush the pile of the velvet. Alternatively press the fabric with the fuzzy side onto a soft towel. 

2. If spraying the work surface with the repostioning adhesive ( Spraymount) to stop your fabric moving whilst stencilling is not practical try this.. cover the work surface completely with lining paper. Spray the paper with a light misting of adhesive and smooth the fabric onto that. 

Ashley.

Hope Butler at The Stencil Library

Fifteen year old student Hope Butler shares her experience of work placement with The Stencil Library. She writes

'During a weeks work experience at The Stencil Library I got the opportunity to do a photo shoot using the Gakubuchi stencil ‘Gakubuchi’ is Japanese for Frame or Picture Frame.

Work experience is compulsory for all 14-15 students in English schools; it’s where students get an unpaid placement at schools or businesses for a week experiencing a working life.

I chose to do work experience at The Stencil Library as I am passionate about art and love the art lessons I’ve had at school.  Since I was little my mum has bought stencils from the shop and stencilled many rooms in our house including every bedroom I’ve ever had from yellow and blue circus themed, to pink fairies right up to my current room which was the first thing I stencilled myself, in pink and black Japanese Cherry Blossoms.  I hope to when I’m older go to University and study Architecture, Interior Design or both and I thought The Stencil Library would help me experience new perspectives of design which I could apply in my later life.

At The Stencil Library I experienced all aspects of the business; I used Photoshop, Freehand, helped with databases and with packaging the stencils which is harder than its sounds and I found most difficult, tearing lots of brown paper in an attempt to at least pack one stencil successfully!  I was also kindly given the opportunity to paint and do my own photo shoot using the Gakubuchi stencil.    

I liked the Gakubuchi for its intricate ornate pattern that formed the large frame.  I chose to do the stencil in cream as I felt that it not only complimented the blue background wall but also matched the delicate design of the stencil.

then wanted something slightly more unusual and contemporary in the shoot so I hung objects in the stencilled frames.  My choices of ballet shoes was because as well as their colour being suited to the background and frame the elegance and regalness associated with ballet also applied to the frame.  I then chose to carry on with the dance theme and prop tutus and character skirts and all sort of dance things in the shoot making the room resemble a young dancer’s boudoir.

I like to imagine this would’ve been what my room would’ve looked like had I not ditched my ‘ballerina’ phase in favour for the ‘pony’ phase.'

Hope Butler.