craftgrrl | the newbie has come for advice!

Heyhey, all!

I'm the new girl, but I've been watching this community and first and foremost, a hand for all the crafty crafty people out there! *YAAAAAAY*

Okay, a question: I like patches, but I can never see any my friends and I particularly like. So I want to make my own! I was thinking of making them out of canvas and just drawing directly on them with a Sharpie or India ink. But! I have no idea whether the image would soak in and feather or if the ink wouldn't run at the sight of liquid contact. I'm what you would call fabrically challenged when it comes to stuff like this...

So, I plan on getting a test swatch and drawing on it to see how it looks and then soak it in some after after the ink's all nicely dried.

Before I begin, doesn anyone out there have any ideas or suggestions for going about this project? I want longevity and quality first and foremost, though cost efficiency is a big plus *turns out empty pockets*