Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Design Your Own



I used to have a screen printer, it scared the crap outta me.  I sold it on craigslist with a shit ton of accessories for an ungodly low price.  Now I just paint on my clothes with quality textile paint, they're one of a kind, they usually turn out pretty cool, and I love them.  The downside, of course, is the bumpy uneven surface of the shirt, not the smooth surface of a screen printer.

Most of the time I'll just freehand my design on a piece of paper with marker (I like the way marker writes, it's fat and smooth, unlike a super sharp pen).  But you can just as easily print out something you like and use these instructions accordingly.  This post is a little tutorial on painting an owl (or whatever floats your boat) on a knit t-shirt.

If you've read my layered shirt blog post, you know my love for knit fabric (I farking hate it), painting on knit is much easier than cutting and sewing it though.  Here's what you'll need:


  • T-shirt or what ever you want to paint on.
  • A design 
  • Exacto knife
  • Cutting board
  •  Marker-washable marker if you don't want an outline/permanent if you do.
  • Paint brushes
  • Fabric paint (I  use Jacquard Textile Paint  It's quality paint with out paying an arm and a leg)
 If you can, wash and dry your shirt, don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets.  If you can't wash and dry your shirt, that's okay too.
Place your image on the cutting board and use your exacto knife to knock out the parts of the image you DO NOT want on your piece.








Place the paper on your shirt and trace the image knockout on your shirt with mark
Paint the image the way you want it.  




Let the paint dry and follow the directions on the paint bottle for "setting" the image (for Jacquard you'll heat set, using and iron)


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