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For people who are used to painting on canvas or paper, creating wearable art with fabric paints can be a daunting prospect. If you make a mistake on paper, you can erase it. Oil painters will often recycle paintings for the sake of saving canvas if the first one did not turn out right. All you have to do is spread a coat of gesso over the inferior piece of work and voila! You have a new canvas to work on.
With T-shirt painting, there is no such thing as erasing or just painting over it. It is important to get it right in the planning stage before you open your paints. There are many easy steps involved in preparing the shirts that you wish to paint. There are also various methods that you can use to actually apply the paint. None of these methods are foolproof, but they are effective.
Choosing your T-Shirt
Craft stores sell T-shirts in many fashionable colors, and the fabric is usually a good quality, opaque, preshrunk cotton. You want a preshrunk T-shirt so that your painting will not shrink with the shirt or warp out of shape when you launder the finished product. Stores like Walmart or Target or Kmart that sell men's white T-shirts in packs of three or more (Hanes is an excellent brand) will give you the most reasonable deal if you plan to paint them in bulk. The only thing you usually sacrifice is color. Just keep in mind that one colored T-shirt from a craft shop costs the same as three white T-shirts at Walmart, and that you can also tie-dye the white shirts using Rit or any other commercial, permanent fabric color. Get the most bang for your buck.
Preparing the T-Shirt
At most craft stores, you can also find T-shirt boards made of cardboard that you can insert into the shirt. These pull the fabric taut and flat, which makes it easier to draw or transfer your sketch onto it. The benefit to using a T-shirt board is the lack of seepage; your paint will not soak through from the front of the shirt to the back in splotches, or onto your tabletop.
At the craft store or a fabric store, you can purchase a large embroidery hoop. This is a nice alternative to the T-shirt board if you are just going to do something simple like stamping or a stencil. If you are going to draw the design onto the T-shirt by hand, however, your best bet is the board. It will allow you to press down firmly with your pencil when you make your sketch. Use soft lead or charcoal pencils if you are going to draw freehand.
Prewashing a T-shirt is essential if you are buying a shirt that is not preshrunk. You have to remove the sizing (starch that the manufacturer used to make the garment hang nicely from the hanger or hold its shape when folded and wrapped) before you paint. The sizing may also cause your paint to resist (i.e., prevent it from soaking into the fabric; it will sit on the surface and flake off when dry). Iron the T-shirt on high to remove the wrinkles (since it is cotton).
Insert your T-shirt board, or clamp the embroidery hoop to the front of the shirt, making sure that the inner hoop is inside the shirt, and the outer hoop is outside.
You are now ready to prepare your picture and your paints.
Preparing Your Image
If you are using a stencil, pin it to the shirt (inside the boundary of the hoop if you use one). If you are using sponges or stamps, make sure you have your water, test paper, and a cloth for daubing off the excess nearby. For pictures that you plan to draw freehand, it is a good idea to blow it up (if it is small) so you have a better look at the amount of detail. A quick way to transfer a picture that you have already drawn (or a photograph) is to turn it over, and scrub the back of it with vine charcoal or soft lead pencil, covering the entire surface. Then, lay it scrubbed-side-down against the T-shirt, and trace outline of each shape firmly with a ball-point pen. This will press a faint outline of your picture onto the fabric. (For the record, this method of transferring a drawing also works for linoleum used in relief prints).
For your freehand sketch, make sure to press down firmly with the pencil. Make the sketch a bit bigger than you actually want it to be in the finished product, since even preshrunk shirts still shrink a bit after repeated washings.
Preparing Your Paints
If you use acrylic paints that do not specifically say "permanent fabric paint" on the bottle, make sure to purchase some fabric medium. This is a paint additive that allows the acrylic to bond with the fabric, and it makes it more waterproof in the laundry. Acrylic paint is very water-soluble, so it will wash off if you forget the fabric medium. You can buy the medium in large jars very inexpensively (about three or four dollars for around six to eight ounces).
Mix your paints in paper cups, or use a plastic crafter's palette. It looks like an egg crate, with round little wells for each color. This keeps the paints from running together, and it makes it easier to mix more secondary colors. (Note: If you are confident about your color-mixing abilities, the most colors that you need to purchase are red, yellow, blue, white, and black. If you don't think you can mix a perfect flesh tone or just the right shade of cerulean blue, then by all means, buy some more secondary and tertiary colors to accommodate the needs of your picture.) Pour or squeeze a small amount of each color into each well of your palette, and mix it with the fabric medium (this will be a 1:1 ratio of medium to paint color).
Brushes
Consult the customer service reps at the fabric or craft store for brushes that are best to use with acrylic or fabric paints. You want soft and flexible bristles, made of either natural or synthetic fiber. Avoid the brushes with hard plastic bristles that come in children's painting kits. These are harsh, they don't spread paint color well across your surface, and they make scratchy lines.
Applying Paint to Your Shirt
Dip your brush generously, and tap the excess back into the palette. Press the brush firmly with each stroke. You will be able to tell if the paint is penetrating the surface of the fabric. You should still be able to see the texture of the fabric under the color. If not, you may have used too much. If you can still see the color of the T-shirt from under your paint, you may want to apply a second coat, making sure to press firmly so it will soak into the fabric more adequately. White paint on dark fabric will usually take a second coat. Some of the lighter shades of yellow will cause the same problem.
Stamping
Make sure you have a test piece of paper to see how your stamp will look when applied to the shirt. Stamp a few impressions on the paper, and check to see if the paint is globbing up on the stamp in any of those prints. If so, you will need to shake off the excess.
Setting the Color
Fabric paint needs to be heat-set. Allow the paint to dry and "cure" according to the manufacturer's instructions. Remove the board or hoop and then lay the shirt flat on your ironing board. Cover it with a paper towel or paper bag. Iron it on medium for the length of time specified on the paint container. (This is usually for a minute or two, moving the iron back and forth evenly across the surface, or by holding it in one place for a minute on each section of the picture.)
You may also toss the dried and cured shirt into the laundry dryer and leave it in their on permanent press for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Design Shortcuts
You can make a simple stamp print on a T-shirt with everyday objects like sea shells, maple leaves, ivy leaves, a whole fish from the butcher department (you would roll one side of the fish in paint and simply press it against the shirt), a potato half with shapes carved into it, or half of an apple.
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