Easy Peasy Faux French Grainsack Tutorial

Sooooooooooooooooo..................How have all of you been? Summer's been zipping by, hasn't it? I feel like I've missed most of it..........I've been working on the inside of the house for what seems like forever now. :-) But, I'm happy to report I'm zooming (taking a moment to laugh) in on the finale!




Finally.



My precious daughter came over today and painted my Hubby's bathroom for me... I'll get it all put back together tomorrow.......at least that's my plan.

Then, on Sunday afternoon I'm hoping to make a couple of shelves for my sewing room.....the very last room. It's going to be a process getting that room finished. I have TONS of things and VERY little space. (That, by the way, is the story of my life.)


I have tons on things to share with you and I'm going to make an effort to get them all posted here ASAP.

But, in the meantime, I've been meaning to post this quickie little tutorial for you forEVER...


So, here goes.

Vintage grainsacks are NOT in my budget...............and........being TIGHTWAD TILLY.........there had to be a better (read cheaper) way, right?

You'll be able to whip one of these up in an afternoon and in my book that's just pretty darn satisfying.

I made mine from canvas dropcloth fabric leftover from the den slipcovers. NEARLY FREE. :-)

I used my old cutting board to tape the fabric to..... It's big and worked great for this project.

It helps to tape it down so you get the stripes nice and even and you won't have to "fight" the darn thing the entire time.

I used pencil to draw lines on my fabric. They won't show after you apply the paint, so no worries.

If you have a rotary cutter type ruler it will do the job perfectly for you. If not, you can measure....make little dots and draw lines from one side to the other.

Even if you don't sew I HIGHLY recommend buying one of these rulers. They are handy for so many things. You'll wonder how you got along without one for so long.

After you've decided how wide you want the stripes and drawn your pencil lines, apply tape to each side of the lines.

You'll need a stencil brush, paper towels and black paint for the next step.

Dip the brush in the paint then swirl it onto the paper towel removing nearly ALL of the paint. Trust me....you want VERY little paint on your brush.


Brush between the tape strips.....be careful not to smoosh any paint up under the tape. If you use a light hand and pounce it will deliver paint exactly where you want it and will look FAB.U.LOUS when you remove the tape.


Step one finished!...

And, there you have it.....looks good, right??? I painted the first stripe, removed the tape and applied tape for the second stripe.


Oh my gosh........I hope I'm making this clear. It's soooo easy and it's so much fun to have SUCCESS! :-)

Third stripe........same as before.... We're getting the hang of it now! :-)

Now, they don't call me Tightwad Tilly for NOTHIN'... I've told you before that I actually SAVE all of that clear packaging the companies insist on putting everything into these days.


I use it for lots of things......this time for a stencil.


I printed #612 on my computer........laid the plastic over the top so I could trace around the numbers and cut them out with a tiny pair of scissors.


See those little lines on the top/bottom and sides? I like perfect....so I make those little marks on the stencil and line them up with tick marks on my fabric. That way the stencil will be perfectly centered.

Oh my..... I so hope that made sense. Imagine your fabric folded into fourths....then line up those little tick marks with those fold lines.

I use spray adhesive on the back of the stencil so it's nice and tight.... I don't want any paint running under the stencil or it will look messy.




SIX TWELVE? It's my grandson's birthday... :-)



You could commemorate any special day.........or use letters and create your own monogram.

And, there you go.....whip that little cutie right up into a pillow and you're done.


If you have the paint, brush and spray adhesive this will cost PENNIES to make.


Just right for Tightwad Tilly!



Thanks for hanging in there for me.



Oh my gosh....You are AWESOME!




Have a wonderful weekend.




Lovies and Huggies!


Spencer