Preen – the experiments continue

 

Front of Preen inspired shorts
Front of Preen inspired shorts

My Preen Inspired shorts are finished! The style is not inspired by Preen – I don’t think they do a range of running shorts, although the duo design for Debenhams. And my fabric design is somewhat constrained by the cottage-industry approach of my production line. But I am thrilled to bits to be able to run around with my own peony photos on my pants. The colours are really vibrant.

Back of Preen inspired shorts
Back of Preen inspired shorts

The shorts are lovely. But another of my experiments was not so nice. I used polycotton and the heat transfer inks which had been so successful with my Sewathon T-shirt. For this I had used a polyester jersey and had had stunning results. The colours were bright and the colour effects were better than I had hoped for.

100 per cent synthetic
100 per cent synthetic

I thought the polyester-cotton blend would be equally wonderful, but sadly not. I prepared the paper by producing a two-inch square grid, then coloured in each square with watered down transfer inks. I used the heat press to apply the ink to the polycotton. Unfortunately the brush strokes were evident, but not in a good way, and the colours were more muted. A disappointing result on the same night England lost to Uruguay.

Looks like a Care Home curtain
Looks like a Care Home curtain

I also made some T-shirts with iron on transfers that I printed at Mary Ward Centre. Here I used the same set of photos of pixellated peonies but ran them off on the photocopier. The printing ink and a layer of shiny adhesive is also applied, this time to cotton fabric. It’s not the best effect ever, with a little bit of puckering and a high gloss finish. I wore one for yoga with my purple leggings and it looked nice and performed well.

Centring the transfer on the T shirt
Centring the transfer on the T shirt
After cooling, carefully remove the backing
After cooling, carefully remove the backing
T shirts with iron on pixelated peonies
T-shirts with iron on pixellated peonies

My shorts pattern is developing well (this is the third iteration) – I have one or two developments left to work through!

 

  1. Carolyn

    Wow! I love what you have done with the printing here! The effect is quite sensational! I’ve never heard of this technique before and I’m intrigued. I also love the fantastic look you got with your running shirt. Such a vibrant and exciting design 🙂
    Thank you so much for your kind comment on my blog 🙂

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