Custom Yudu Fabric!

Next week I will be in Toronto on The Shopping Channel presenting Yudu, and so this week I thought that I would make up a couple of Christmas gift style projects to add to the projects that we show on air.

I must say that I LOVED making my own fabric and can see the Yudu system being an amazing addition to a quilter's stash of tools (of course in addition to all of the other cool things that you can do with Yudu!)

This is the Yudu machine! The system burns your screens, dries them, acts as a light table and also becomes your registrations system if you are silkscreening more than one color! 

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Yudu is a personal silk screening system. You get all of the finesse and perfection of a professional silk screen system, in a size that you can easily store at home and use WHENEVER you want to! It's shockingly easy to make your own screens!!

1. Prep your silk screen by giving it a good cleaning. When the screens are brand new, they have a bit of oil residue on them from the manufacturing process. I like to clean mine by cutting a 1" strip of emulsion (comes in your starter kit) and dissolving the emulsion in 1/8 cup of water. Then use the solution you've made to scrub the screen with. The girls at work call this solution voodoo! This prep step ensures that your emulsion will stick to your screen as you proceed and you only have to do it when you have a brand new screen.

This is my 'Quin' screen. The green spot on the right is where I've started inking my design onto fabric. 

2.  Wet your screen, apply the emulsion and then let it dry thoroughly. Be sure to follow the directions that came with your machine or check out the tutorial online!

3. Choose your design... though I suppose you could do this before you apply your emulsion so that you use the right sized piece of emulsion! Any design works!! Pick images from the www (be lawful!) or cut images out of black cardstock with your Cricut machine. If you want, you can even draw your designs onto a piece of overlay material using a permanent black marker! For my 'Quin' fabric, I used a collage of 4 or 5 fonts and printed them out onto the Yudu overlay material which also comes with your starter pack. The Yudu brand overlay material looks sort of foggy and this foggy coating ensures that you get a super black inkjet print from your printer. The darker black makes your screen images very crisp and perfect!

4. Burn your design into your screen. This is done by putting your overlay or cricut cut paper underneath the prepared screen and then exposing it to light for 8 minutes. Again, refer to your directions!

5. Rinse your screen. Anywhere that there was a blacked out image will now wash off of your screen. Be sure to let your screen dry thoroughly again and then you will be ready to start inking.

6. Have fun silk screening! If you want to watch a live demo, tune into the show!! We air on October 13th at 2pm, 6pm and 11pm EST. I think we are part of a sewing hour for this airing, so if you want in on the sure to be amazing Shopping Channel pricing for a Yudu system, you'll have to stay alert! lol

My Walmart 'Clearance' fabrics selections

.... now back to my project!! I sort of got side tracked with the basics, cause I really wanted to give you an idea of how it's done. If you have questions, feel free to email me or the Yudu team!

A square of 'Quin' fabric

I used some fabrics that I had on hand and cut 5.5" x 5.5" squares. Then I screened just the lighter green squares...

Very precise sewing, of course!! lol 

I sewed a panel of fabric that would fit a book bag size, then realized that maybe I needed a pattern for the book bag!! I decided to be resourceful, and borrowed a totally cute bag that Quin had received as a gift. Check out our friend (the?) Sewing Dork! The original book bag was her creation and she has all kinds of other great ideas on her blog!

Custom Fabric is pretty cool!! 

I pressed and cut and sewed some more... and LOVE how great the finished book bag turned out! 

Close up! 

I think the top stitching and the glittery flower & button were the perfect finishing touches! 

Quin the model

The only problem now is that Quin actually WANTS the book bag! What is she thinking?! Just because it has her name on it?! I mean really?!  I told her that if we sell out of Yudu I will bring the bag back with me from The Shopping Channel, otherwise it is staying there for the next show!