Twist Dyed Tablecloths with Annie Sloan

What a wonderful opportunity for free creative expression. A friend asked me to help her create a number of Twist Dyed tablecloths for a function. It was a great opportunity to put Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to the test as a fabric dye. Neither of us had tried it before, but we were delighted with the results.

The Process:

We had white poly cotton fabric tablecloths.

We made sure the tablecloths were damp through before starting.

We laid each cloth on a flat surface, and using our fingers, we twisted them round and round. We used DIY Supreme’s helpful You-Tube Video for inspiration. Eventually were had a flat spiral wheel of fabric, which we tied loosely together to keep it in shape.

We then mixed Annie Sloan chalk paint with water – 1 part paint to 3 parts water. We used tomato sauce squeeze bottles to spout the paint onto the fabric rounds. We worked gently, easing the paint deep into the folds in ‘pizza slice’ segments.

We turned the rounds over and did the same on the other side, matching the coloured segments from underneath. We found it was best to let the cloths drain off, and so we left them in their rounds on a gentle slope on the grass for about half an hour.

Then we opened them out and hung them up to dry. We were so delighted with the spiral outcome!

Note: We did not wash them before the function. They would probably be a few shades lighter once washed.

The bright Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Colours we used were:

Emperor”s Silk (Red)
Barcelona Orange
English Yellow
Antibes Green
Napoleonic Blue

 T-Shirts Too

I couldn’t resist using the leftover paints to dye a t-shirt for my husband and myself too!

We were attending the hippie function ourselves.  

 I used the same twist technique, but just used blue and green for him and orange, yellow, red and a touch of green for me.

So much fun!