Painted Fabric Fruit Tips, Craft Tales

"Fruity" Tips

For Painted Fabric Apples and Pears.

Don't fret too much over seam accuracy. You don't want them perfect, especially if you're making more than one for a grouping.

If you are making more than one to be used together, sew, paint and varnish them simultaneously, assembly line style. You can make sure the shapes are all suited to each other and all painting techniques are the same. Although you don't want them to be identical, you do want them to match.

Before applying the gesso and paint, I poke an 8" long doll needle into the bottom to use as a handle. When a painting step has been finished, I drop the needle end into a cup to allow them to dry. It looks like a pear or apple bouquet!

The idea of the gesso is to smooth out the texture of the fabric, to fill in the seams and the gathers on the top and bottom of the fruit, but at the same time, leave a little definition. You don't want the tops and bottoms to appear gathered; rather, you want them to look like nature's creases. Take you're time with this step as it is critical to the finished appearance of the fruit.

During the painting steps, the contrast may appear too severe between the colors or overly unrealistic, especially on the pear, but the application of the antique varnish blends this all together.

Don't be overly apprehensive to go from one painting step to the other. Remember if you make a mistake, the worst possible thing that can happen is that you'll have to go back to the first paint color and start over. I started over on one poor pear 3 or 4 times before I got it right!

When applying the brown paint, start off with the paint undiluted. As you move your way out to the point where the brown paint meets and blends with the main fruit color paint, keep adding more water. You can use your fingers or a paper towel to wipe and move the diluted paint around until it fades completely into the fruit color. If it does not blend as you wish, use a wet paper towel and wipe the paint away and then try again.

You can apply the brown paint over the gathers (Oh! I mean nature's creases!) on the top and bottom, give it a minute or two to "set", then lightly wipe away some of the paint with a damp paper towel on the "humps".

If the final varnishing leaves the fruit a little too glossy, rub them with a fine steel wool and it will slightly dull them to the correct shininess.

You may want to try different colored paint for your fruit. They can be very striking in a plain, solid color. You can also try the specialty paints that make the fruit appear like stone, wood, marble or velvet. You can also leave them in their unpainted muslin state and simply varnish them, or make them out of printed fabric. Just experiment and have fun!

These have been fun projects for me. I've made them several times; they make wonderful gifts. I hope you enjoy making them as much as I do.