Making Fabric-Covered Pots for Fun and Profit...(or just fun).

[pen_grunt]

Once upon a time I got some crafty little bug and made these fabric covered pots:
Pretty! And easy. (Though sort of messy and kind of time-consuming.) I always thought I would do a little tutorial--and where else am I going to write it up--so here it is:

First, you will need pots. I used regular terra cotta garden pots. I got these from the craft store since I liked the shape a bit better than those at the garden center. Also you will need Mod Podge. Pictured is the matte stuff--which works okay if your pots are just going to be decorative. If you plan on putting plants in them (and then watering your plants so they don't die), use Outdoor Mod Podge. It will feel a bit sticky/tacky but it will be waterproof. You want waterproof. We'll mitigate that tackiness later.

So gather:
1" sponge paint brushes (more than one--I went through about 6-7 but I was doing a lot of pots)
Mod Podge (your choice, but I like outdoor. Matte will NOT stand up to watering, though it can be fine for a basecoat underneath the fabric if you're sealing it with outdoor.)
Terra Cotta pots (I used 6" and 4.5")
White acrylic paint
Newspaper/grocery bags to lay down
Fabric (your choice--but I found that stuff with stripes or very structured patterns didn't work well since the design will curve around the pot)
Scissors
Clear acrylic sealing spray

Don't wear good pants, either. In fact, I recommend doing this in your underwear so you can wipe the stray glue from your fingers on your bare legs. It's easier to get off that way.


First--paint your pots white. It doesn't have to look great. One coat is fine. The purpose is to make it so, if you have a fabric with a light background, the orange terra cotta doesn't show through. Wait for this to dry. It won't take long at all.


Measure out your fabric. I did this by placing the pot against an edge (you want to make that straight edge on the pot) and rolling it to determine how much fabric I needed. SO PRECISE.


Cut out your fabric. Keep your cats away from the area. Because they find this to be irresistible.


Put down a small bit of mod podge with your sponge brush and lay the straight edge of the fabric on your pot. Continue putting on small swaths of mod podge and laying your fabric down--smoothing it out as you go. I didn't get many pictures of this process because you have to do it rather quickly and your fingers get messy (the mod podge "bleeds" through the fabric a bit). Hence why you do only small areas at a time. It should smooth out rather nicely on its own.


You can sort of see how I've applied mod podge to a small area and now I'm going to lay the fabric down. There's no need to pull it tight or anything. Just smooth out the wrinkles.


And press along the edge to make sure the fabric adheres tightly to the lip of the pot. This is me smoothing down the big surface area of the pot.


And this is me smoothing out under the lip of the pot after that.


When you meet the other edge, you'll want to make a straight edge and cut off your excess fabric. Leave a little overlap just to be safe. No need to worry about unfinished edges--mod podge will take care of and prevent any fraying.

(By the way, I don't recommend having small scraps of fabric laying around under your pot like this...they will stick to the pot as the mod podge bleeds through and makes it slightly tacky.)

Seal off the edge both below the fabric and above the fabric with the mod podge.


Oh noes! You have extra fabric at the top and bottom! Just cut it off--leaving at least an inch on both ends. SO PRECISE!


Then, with that extra top and bottom fabric, cut tabs in your fabric. It doesn't really matter how big these are--though you don't want them too big (they won't lay flat) and if they're too small it's just extra work. You don't usually pot a plant with the dirt right up to the pot edge, so you'll want to have enough fabric to go around the lip so you don't see any of the terra cotta pot when you put your plant in it. See: Tabs!


Glue these tabs down with the mod podge, folding them in one after another. (Again, don't work too far ahead of yourself with the mod podge. It dries very quickly.


Do the same thing on the bottom.


Then: Cover your whole pot with a sealer coat of mod podge. If you're actually using the pot for plants, I STRONGLY recommend the outdoor kind. (Just using the pot to put your keys in? Whatever. Use matte. It's less sticky.) I also put a coat on the inside for waterproofing. Streaks of mod podge won't show very much, though the outdoor formula does tend to show a bit more than the other formulas. Don't worry about it too much, though. Don't leave big globs, but the stuff does dry pretty clear and flat.


Let them dry. This can take a few hours to do completely. You'll want to do one or two more coats if you're going to be using them for anything but decorative purposes. You can put on the next coat when the first coat is still slightly tacky.


If you use outdoor mod podge, the outside of the pot will be slightly tacky even when it's dry. This is no bueno for dirt-stickage and it makes the pots stick together too. So I sprayed the pots with a clear acrylic sealer after they were fully dry. My husband made this hanging-up system to do it, but you obviously don't need to bring it to this level. The sealer will both seal the pots and make the outside not tacky.

(For those who are curious, this is rope with nails tied into the knots to keep the pots from falling. It made me nervous.)


This is roughly the finished product. What about the cute little matching drainage trays on the bottom, you ask? Yeah, I covered those in fabric too. It's a pain in the butt and the best advice I can give is "trial and error". Maybe just use complimenting solid color drainage trays. ;)


Ta-da! Fabric covered pots! I've had these for about two years now and they are all holding various houseplants and herbs.
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Comments

[silverpoet01.livejournal.com]

I may have to try this, thanks for the tut. They're cute. I craft about as precisely so it's a perfect project.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It's DEFINITELY not a craft that demands precision. Plus, though it's messy, it's super-easy to do and make look fabulous on the first try! I was astounded b/c I expected wrinkled messes the first time around.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

I smell an etsy store.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Smacks of time and effort. Meh.