I recently went through an Ikat phase and I searched all over the web for fabrics, information and inspiration. I love the tribal vibe and the brilliant colors but I was having trouble finding true Ikat fabric that I could afford.

You see, Ikat fabric is rather labor intensive (you can read about it here: Ikat fabric) and fairly expensive.

So I decided to do some playing around.

I used cheap foam brushes and Neopaque textile paint from Jacquard to create a not quite perfect geometric pattern.

The fabric is a medium weight canvas from some tabbed top curtains I had from an old decorating job. Yay for recycling!

I let it dry and then heat set it with an iron.

Just for fun I squiggle stitched in each color with a matching color thread. There isn’t much in the way of contrast but it did add an interesting bit of texture.

Finally, I stitched it up into a pillow with a heavy red fringe and said, “VIOLA!”

It’s not Ikat but it was fun to make and it didn’t cost a thing as I already had all of the supplies on hand.