Making Painted Shirts

                Last Thursday, I was talking about the shirts I am making for Ella’s birthday. I have completed one and the other is almost there. Ian's is still drying. These have been a ton of fun to make so far. They really are not that hard and I would recommend making these for any occasion. Let the kiddos make their own shirts for trips, costumes, or just for fun.

                The stencils I used are under the sea since the party is mermaid themed, but there is a wide variety of stencils you can use. To keep the stencils from slipping, I used plain masking tape to secure the sides while painting. The daubers I used were left over from the flower pot project that I posted a while back. They worked perfectly with the fabric paint. Fill in the paint with a little a stamping motion and go slow, especially with detailed stencils. The fabric can stick to the dauber and cause the image to smudge. I found that it did help to hold down the sides of the image with a finger.

                For mine, I used purple for the background image and black for the lettering. Since the lettering was in a darker color, I did not have to worry about the background showing through. With Ian’s, I wanted to use white for the lettering. For his, I had to make sure the paint was thick enough to stand out. It was not hard since the paint was tulip puff paint. Some of his letters turned out a little on the light side but he seemed to be ok with that. I wanted my lettering to have some sparkle. So, after the black had a moment to dry I went over it with a glitter fabric paint. You do not have to use separate paint. They do make shiny paints, I just did not have one on hand.

                The process is perfect for t-shirts but you can use it to embellish any fabric item. You can take a tote bag, scarf, or whatever you want and paint your design. Just make sure that you put cardboard or plastic under the fabric that you are painting. Without something to paint on, the paint will bleed through and possibly stick to the back of the shirt or table. I used a plastic board covered in wax paper. It worked extremely well.

                Once you have painted your shirt, let it dry completely and follow the directions on the bottle to set the paint. When washing your shirts, you will need to wash it inside out. Just wait to launder them until the paint has set for 72 hours. You can add jewels or other embellishments with fabric glue such as jewel-it. Have fun with it and as always there are no wrong answers. Happy crafting!

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