Surface textiles is one of the most exciting and versatile areas of textiles practice. It encompasses everything that happens to the surface of a fabric: how it's coloured, decorated, textured, and transformed. Whether you're a complete beginner, a hobbyist maker, or a teacher building your subject knowledge, surface textiles is where some of the most creative and personal work happens.
This guide introduces the key techniques and how to get started with each one.
What Is Surface Textiles?
Surface textiles refers to any process that changes or enhances the surface of a fabric, rather than its structure. This includes:
- Dyeing — changing the colour of fabric using natural or synthetic dyes
- Printing — applying colour or pattern to the surface using blocks, screens, or digital methods
- Stitch — adding texture, pattern, or imagery through hand or machine embroidery
- Mixed media — combining fabric with other materials such as paper, wire, or found objects
- Manipulation — techniques like pleating, gathering, or smocking that alter the surface texture
Essential Techniques to Know
1. Fabric Printing
Block printing, screen printing, and monoprinting are all accessible at home or in a studio. Start with block printing — it requires minimal equipment and produces immediate, satisfying results. Progress to monoprinting for more experimental, one-off outcomes.
2. Natural Dyeing
Natural dyeing using plants, food waste, and mordants is increasingly popular — and connects beautifully to sustainable making. Onion skins, avocado pits, and weld are all reliable starting points. Eco printing (using leaves and flowers pressed directly onto fabric) is a particularly magical technique that produces stunning, unpredictable results.
3. Free Machine Embroidery
With the feed dogs lowered and an embroidery hoop in hand, free machine embroidery allows you to “draw” with thread directly onto fabric. It takes a little practice to control, but produces stunning results and opens up a whole new way of working with your sewing machine.
4. Bondaweb and Appliqué
Bondaweb (fusible webbing) allows fabric shapes to be bonded together and to a background fabric using heat. It's versatile, accessible, and produces professional-looking results even for complete beginners. Combine with hand or machine stitch for added texture and detail.
5. Discharge Printing
Discharge printing removes colour from dyed fabric using a bleach solution or discharge paste, creating light patterns on a dark ground. The results are often unpredictable and beautiful — perfect for embracing the happy accident.
6. Dissolvable Fabric
Working on dissolvable fabric (also called soluble fabric or vanishing muslin) allows you to create delicate, lace-like structures using stitch. Once the fabric is dissolved in water, only the stitched structure remains. The results are always impressive and unlike anything achievable with conventional fabric.
How to Get Started
The best way into surface textiles is through sampling — trying multiple techniques before committing to one for a larger piece. Keep a sketchbook or sample book of everything you try, noting what worked, what didn't, and what you'd like to explore further.
Connect your work to a source of inspiration — a designer, artist, natural form, or place — and let that guide your colour choices, mark-making, and composition. The most resolved surface textiles work always has a clear creative intention behind it.
Take It Further
Our Surface Textiles Techniques (Online) course covers a wide range of techniques with clear video instruction, so you can learn at your own pace from home.
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