DIY Otomi Fabric

Have you ever walked through Casa Artelexia and admired those colorful embroidered animals from our Otomi fabric…and then hung your head after looking at their price tags? Otomi fabric is highly sought after and appreciated as a finely crafted, traditional Mexican art: meaning no matter where you buy it, it’s super expensive!

If you aren’t familiar with Otomi fabric, it is typically white cotton fabric hand-embroidered with various brightly colored animals and flower motifs. The indigenous Otomi people of Mexico create these gorgeous fabrics using special embroidery techniques which involve using as little thread as possible.
 

It’s no wonder why Otomi fabric costs so much, but we know buying it can be difficult. So we’ve created our own faux Otomi fabric on a budget using only paint, fabric, and some fun Otomi inspired stencils: enjoy!

What you’ll need:

-1 yard or more of white fabric (we’ve used muslin)

-acrylic or fabric paint

-paintbrushes (or foam paintbrushes)

- Otomi stencils (the ones we bought can be found HERE, a free download of Otomi stencils can be found HERE)

-pencil

What to do:

1.     Prepare a large open space to lay your fabric flat. Tape the sides to the space so it doesn’t move around as you are tracing and painting.

2.     Think about how you would like your Otomi fabric to look: the composition of your shapes, how cluttered you want it to be, etc…

3.     Begin tracing your stencils onto your fabric with a pencil. Tape the stencils to the fabric so they won’t move around as you are tracing.

4.     After you’ve traced all of your shapes, begin painting them.

5.     When you’ve finished painting each shape, you will officially have your own faux Otomi fabric!