Screen printing... (the ghetto-fabulous way).

Growing up, I was warned not to envy other people covet their things.

Unfortunately I have been looking at many a decorating magazine and have secretly wanted the gorgeous pillows that have prettified beds and couches alike.

source

source

As the colourful geometric patterns and soft textures of pillows seen over the world wide web taunted me, I decided to take matters into my own hands... the cheaper way (there was no way I was dishing out $100+ for a pillow case!).

I saw this beaut on Etsy & used it as my inspiration for my design. I loved the look, but I think my husband would have fainted if we paid that for a pillow! As you can tell (from the logo) I'm lovin the greek key design!

I came across an amazing post from tatertots & jello, where the guest blogger shared her strategy for screen printing.

Upon trial, I have realized that yes, it IS possible to make & own a lovely patterned pillow for a fraction of the price!

enter: pillow from Ikea's AS-IS section (it was half the price & had nothing wrong with it!), masking tape, blue painters tape, ruler, sponge tip brush & Simply Screen printing paint (I got it from Wal-Mart for less than $4 a pop).

To start, I needed to tape my pillow case to the work surface (in this case, our dinner table). Because it was already sewn up, it was a bit tricky getting it as taut and flat as possible. Then I used the blue painters tape to mark where my design would be.

Once the design was taped, I began to carefully use the masking tape to border the painters tape (wow, I said 'tape' a gazillion times there).

This process is again time-consuming, but you get the hang of it eventually. :)

excuse the colour difference in the photos... the above one was around 6:00 am, and the bottom one was when the winter sun finally came out at 8 :)

once the painter's tape was bordered, I made sure all of the edges were attached to the material (this pillow was a bit finicky as it had a bit of a waffle-like texture, making some room for seep-age... I'll share more about this later.

this is what it looked like without the tape. After removing it, I made sure to go over the edges once more with the lid of a deodorant stick (don't ask. It happened to be sitting there & it's dull top worked perfectly, thank you!) ;)

For my colour, I wanted the greek key to be a grey-ish blue, so I mixed the colours 'Milk', 'Bippity-Boppity-Blue' and 'Tin Foil' (Simply Screen has a great selection of around 12 colours to choose from, and they can easily be mixed to get a custom colour of your choice).

This is what it looked like (although the picture makes it look a little less grey than it actually is). When mixing your colour you do want to remember that it will dry about a half-shade darker than what it looks like wet.

 I carefully applied the paint, making sure not to saturate the tape with the paint in case it peeled.

Now the waiting game...

the package says it takes about 24 hours to air dry, but in the post I read, it states that for any impatient people ;) a fan can be used for two hours and the tape can be removed. 

When the time has arrived, carefully remove the tape.

Much to my delight, the colour looked amazing against the crisp whiteness of the pillow (my dream was slowly coming true!)

But... much to my dismay, some of the tape had seeped outside of the lines (gah!! I shake my fist at you, Waffle pillow!!!)

*sigh. you can't have it all, can ya?

After the paint has had time to set, you need to heat set it with an iron, using a pressing cloth (as per instuctions). Set the iron to the highest setting (without steam or spraying it with water. It has to be dry) and iron it reallllllly good. 

unfortunately my iron was a cheap one, and I was too impatient to iron it before testing it out. So here is my wrinkly (but dry!) pillow in action:

This technique is great for pretty much any type of fabric & any type of clothing (hm... maybe I should make a greek key t-shirt. okay, gotta stop while I'm ahead)...

Happy printing! :)