Use your creativity and skills to upcycle your style by adding decorative touches to your clothes with dye, paint, beads, embroidery, and more!
 

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Exploring 4-H

Exploring 4-H Clothing Embellishment

Spark Activity: Potato Fabric Stamp

Supplies:

  • Large potato
  • Sharp knife
  • Fabric paint
  • Piece of fabric (like a t-shirt, napkin, or kitchen towel)
  • Paper plate
  • Paper towel
  • Cookie cutter in a decorative shape (optional)

Directions: 

  • Create a stamp from a potato and use it to stamp a design on fabric.
  • Cut the potato in half lengthwise to make a long stamp, or through the middle for a smaller stamp.
  • Pat the cut ends of the potato dry with a paper towel.
  • Take a decorative cookie cutter and press the design into the cut end of the potato to get an outline of the cookie cutter’s shape. If you don’t have a cookie cutter shape you’d like to use, etch a shape outline of your choice into the cut end of the potato (such as a star, heart, or a letter of the alphabet) using a knife.
  • Carefully use the knife to cut out the potato around your shape outline. Leave the area inside your shape uncut, but remove the potato (at least a 1/4 inch deep) from around the shape. You now have your stamp!
  • Squeeze some fabric paint onto a paper plate and spread it around the plate so it is wide enough to be an ink pad for your potato stamp.
  • Dip the stamp into the fabric paint on the plate, then press it down firmly on your piece of fabric. 
  • Repeat this process with the same stamp or additional stamps to create a design of your choosing.
     
4-H Project Levels and Goals
Beginner
  • Learn about different clothing embellishment techniques
  • Learn to identify clothing in your wardrobe that you want to refresh with embellishment
  • Brainstorm ideas for embellishing your clothes
  • Explore basic techniques like tie dye, stamping, stenciling, painting, and simple stitching
Intermediate
  • Learn to apply design principles to your work
  • Explore intermediate techniques like batik dyeing, machine stitching, and adding rivets, grommets, studs and eyelets
Advanced
  • Learn about designers who use clothing embellishment techniques
  • Explore color theory
  • Explore advanced techniques like beading and sequins, fabric manipulation, and applique
Put Your Project Into Action

Show Your Skills

  • Exhibit at your local 4-H Show or county fair with an embellished outfit appropriate for your experience level
  • Demonstrate an embellishment technique
  • Show the basics of color theory and combining colors in pleasing ways

Service and Leadership

  • Embellish fabric items, like pillowcases or blankets, to donate to hospitals or nursing homes.
  • Organize a community clothing drive
  • Organize a community craft supply or fabric exchange
  • Organize a fashion show for a local senior center
  • Assist in organizing a 4-H Clothing Embellishment SPIN Club

Entrepreneurship

  • Produce custom embellished clothing / items
  • Teach others embellishment techniques through classes

Technology Connection

  • National Institute of Fashion Technology
  • LEDs or microcontrollers in clothing
  • 4-H WearTec project

Connecting with a Mentor

  • 4-H club leader or U of I Extension volunteers
  • Local sewing group such as a chapter of the American Sewing Guild or Association of Sewing and Design Professionals
  • Local college fashion departments or clubs
  • Local fabric store
  • High school Family & Consumer Science teachers

Events

  • Exhibit at your local 4-H Show or county fair
  • Technique classes at your local fabric or craft stores

Project Manuals & Exhibit Requirements

View exhibit requirements and scoresheets on the Illinois State Fair page.

Related Projects

Careers
green shirt with embroidered embellishments on it that say "born to make history"
  • Apparel Designer
  • Product Development Engineer 
  • Fashion Stylist
  • Seamstress or Tailor
  • Trend Researcher
     
Start a Conversation
  • Do you have things in your wardrobe which could be altered with clothing embellishment?
  • What types of embellishment techniques do you see in current fashions at your local shopping center?
  • Why can clothing embellishment help the environment?
Credits

Authored by Amy Henschen, 4-H Senior Program Lead

Resources consulted include Nebraska Extension Beyond the Needle and Ohio Extension Embellish: A 4-H Guide to Wearable Art

Resources
Illinois 4-H Clothing Embellishment Project Resources
Illinois 4-H Clothing Embellishment Project Workbook
STEAM Clothing: Beyond the Needle
Embellish: A 4-H Guide to Wearable Art
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