Let’s say that after reading my reviews for a while, you’ve followed in my steps and gotten hooked on an audiobook-a-day habit. But you can’t spend all that time in bed without going stir-crazy. People sometimes ask what I do while I’m listening to audiobooks. Aside from listening while driving in the car, cooking, taking a bath, or trying to fall asleep, I enjoy listening to audiobooks while doing crafts. I use my crafts to make gifts for birthdays and holidays. In fact, I hardly ever purchase any of the gifts I give, instead creating things for friends and family. Making gifts for others is not only fun, but it adds a special touch that your recipients can cherish for years to come. And as an added bonus, many crafts end up costing less than gifts that you might purchase.
So this is my first article in a series on crafts that you can make while indulging your audiobook habit.
Today we’re going to talk about decorating clothes with fabric paint. You can do this with any type of clothing and most types of fabric, but it is usually recommended that you use cotton. I like to buy my shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and tote bags from Jiffy Shirts, which sells good quality cotton items for a really great price. But I also have bought shirts, dresses, and skirts from Amazon or other stores.
Once you select your item to decorate, be sure to wash it because you don’t want it to shrink any after you’ve decorated it, as it would really mess up your artistic creation.
The last set of materials you will need is the fabric paint. There are many types of paint that will serve well for decorating clothing, but the easiest to use come in squeeze bottles with tips. There are many brands, but if I want to use the larger (4 oz.) bottle, I get one of the 63 choices offered by TULIP. If I want a smaller (1.1 oz.) bottle, I will buy one of the 37 sold by Plaid. You will note that there are different styles, such as glitter or metallic. Don’t make the mistake I did when I accidentally made a shirt for my nephew using a glitter paint when he absolutely does not like glitter! (Hint: It didn’t go over very well.) You can also purchase your paints as sets of colors, which is a useful way to get started. One nice thing is that you can interchange paints from both TULIP and Plaid in the same project without any noticeable difference.
Now comes the fun part! Take your paint, and draw! If you are trying to find good examples of the pictures you want to create, Pinterest is an excellent resource. For the following onesie involving an angel, I searched for angel images on Pinterest and found one that served as a great model. I did the same thing for the peacock I drew on the t-shirt. I sorted through several examples of peacocks before settling on one that I felt confident I could draw.
I frequently like to choose a pattern and paint around the hemlines of the item. This often proves to be a nice Christmas present if I use a dressy long-sleeved shirt or sweatshirt. I then paint the bottom and neck line, as well as the edges of the sleeves.
It also works especially well to use a pattern around the hemlines if I get a twirly dress for little girls and decorate the edges. The little girls in my family especially love hearts, which are fairly easy to use in a pattern.
Here are just a few suggestions to make your fabric painting experience better:
– As mentioned above, fabric paint can’t be washed off, so be sure not to wear clothing you particularly value while creating these.
– If you make an error, take a damp paper towel and rub out the wet paint immediately. You will still have a small remnant of the paint, but you’ll be able to get most of it off. However, if you wait, you will not be able to erase your mistake. Then, your only recourse is to find a way to paint over the error in a different color.
– Painting t-shirts is an especially fun activity to do with children, as they will have a great item to wear and show the world what they have done. But I do highly recommend that you use smocks to keep children’s clothes clean, since you can’t wash fabric paint out of clothes. If you don’t have a smock, just take a trash bag and cut holes for the head and arms. Voila!
A useful way to draw more complicated pictures is to use stencils. But that’s a topic for another time. So stay tuned next week for fabric painting with stencils!
