Make Your Own Grain Sack Fabric- When You Cant Get Your Hands On The Real Stuff
Grain sack fabric is such an iconic farmhouse look, but lets be real..It is hard to come by and it is expensive! Well, dont despair! Its so easy to make and I am here to show you how to make your own grain sack fabric in any color you want! You just need a few simple and inexpensive items. Keep reading to find out how!
It has been one of those days. After a few days of work, and all the necessary minutia that follows my life around, I get antsy. I bet I am hilarious to watch. I start a project, but in the middle of that project, I come up with another one.
While I am juggling both of those projects, I hatch another one….and the cycle continues. That is how today was. I was in the midst of decorating my dining room for Christmas, but nothing was going quite as planned. I just was not loving the direction it was heading.
I sat down a minute and was looking through some of my inspiration pics when it hit! My dining table needed a grain sack tablecloth! Oh yes, I will just run to my closet and look through my collection. Oh wait, don’t I wish I ha d a large collection of grain sack fabric hanging out in my closet. Oh yes please. The ideas is practically dreamy!
So instead, I went looking in my fabric closet. Drop cloth fabric, that is what I was looking for. Red paint? Yup, found it. I was getting very excited. I decided I needed to make a tablecloth and some extra for other projects.
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Here is what I used to make my easy grain sack fabric:
General Purpose Masking Tape 1 1/2- 2 inch wide
Red Craft Paint
(or whatever color you want to make them)
Now let me just say this: I am in no way trying to replace the amazing antique grain sack fabric that you can sometimes find. If I could keep a nice large collection of that stuff in my home, oh my, I would be in heaven. But, alas, purchasing that is just not in my budget these days. Maybe one day. Until then, I will use my go to method and create my own. I know its not the same, but it sure is close.
The first thing I did was lay out my drop cloth fabric. This fabric had been washed a few times so it has a much nubbier and softer feel to it.
I will say drop cloth is a pretty good substitution but I do think that you need to wash it with some bleach to soften it up. Did you know there are different drop cloth weights? I would recommend getting a lighter wight drop cloth fabric. It will initially be softer and more pliable and your grain sack lines will look better on it.
I taped off the lines that I wanted to create on the fabric. I chose two skinny lines for this piece. I also made some with a wider stripe on it. You can do any pattern you want. You can do a grain sack fabric with a large middle stripe and two small stripes, one on each side. You can do it with just one thin stripe, or many others. I kept mine simple.
Once the fabric has been taped off, I took some red paint and brushed it on in a dry application. I did not paint it solid. There is unevenness that I quite like. You want to make sure that your have dabbed most of the paint off before applying it to the drop cloth fabric. You do not want the lines to be solid. I have never seen a piece of grain sack fabric with solid lines. Its just not done!
You can see the look of the paint effect here.
Once I was done, I took the tape off. I did not wait until the paint dried, because sometimes the tape will dry to the paint and you will have a hard time getting the tape off certain spots.
The last thing I did was sand down the lines a bit once they were dry. I just wanted to give them a more antique feel. Sanding the painted lines will give it a softer feel and soften the lines even more. This is what you want!
And that is it! I spent about an hour making two different patterns and had amassed a large amount of faux grain sack fabric. Do not worry, though it will all be put to good use. Check back tomorrow when I show you what I have done with it. I know rude, right? Making you wait.
Check out these posts too!
Making A Pillow With My Grainsack Fabric
Farmhouse Christmas Dining Room Tour
Red and White Farmhouse Christmas Kitchen and Dining Room
Have a great day!
Thats a great project! How did you make sure the tapes were placed straight?
Thanks Chryssina! To make sure the tape was placed straight I measured in from each side of the fabric and made sure each side was the same distance in. Part of it is definitely eyeballing it as well. Once I had the distances from the outside to the inside the measurement I wanted, I decided how thick I wanted the lines and the space between them.
Thats great!! Thank you so much for this input ???
You are so welcome!
Brilliant !!! Because what sellers are charging for “authentic grain sack fabric” is absolutely outrageous. Anything that has french farmhouse tacked onto the name goes up by 500% and the average crafter can afford it. I like your way better.
Thanks!
Do you have any suggestions for making this washable? Thanks!
It can easily be washed. Mine was just fine in the wash
Is the fabric washable after it’s been painted on?
I have painted mine with no problem. Keep in mind that the paint may fade a bit.
Have you used unprimed canvas at all for projects?
I bought a roll few years ago, I used for a project, but then it got forgotten until I moved and got rediscovered and now i am trying to figure out on what can I use it other than primer it and paint. I like to sew, I have a Cricut machine that I can iron on phrases on fabric, just curious if anybody else out there has work with unprimed canvas fabric.
Mine is all unprimed