Batik pillow cases

This is not a how-to blog. There are plenty of those all over the interwebs, and I don’t feel the need to add to their number. I enjoy reading them, though, and I use the ideas I find quite often! This project we did for the first week of school was so fun and turned out so well, however, that I feel the need to blog about it!

I found this idea in Jean Van’t Hul’s book, The Artful Parent. This is a lovely book with lots of ideas for open-ended art projects.

We began with 100% cotton, white pillowcases I picked up from Marshalls on clearance.

We lightly drew our designs in pencil.

Then we drew over our designs with Elmer’s gel glue, the blue kind. Shirts are optional.

What a surprise! Aiden drew a TRAIN! Shocking!

We let it dry overnight. This was the hardest part for Aiden, the waiting for the glue to dry so we could paint.

We used watered down acrylics, just regular old craft acrylics. We didn’t put anything inside the case, and this worked well, since our design transferred to the other side. Pretty!

Then we had to wait for the paint to dry! More waiting! This was a 2+ day project. I did hang the cases on the line to dry during our heat wave, and this sped things up nicely.

After the paint was dry, I soaked the pillowcases in the kitchen sink in hot water for a bit to let the glue soften up. Then I used a scrub brush and scrubbed the glue away. Magic! The white outlines of the drawings emerged, and we were both so happy! This is how the pillowcases looked after they went through the washer:

I don’t know how long the paint will hold up to regular washing and drying, but Aiden insists on using his pillowcase on his bed, and that is where it is right now. This was a really worthwhile project and I plan on doing it again!