A few weeks ago I bought a 3-pack of toddler sized tshirts to decorate for Ziva. I thought I'd share my methods here, I'm so pleased with the results! The shirts cost $5-6 at Walmart, the textile medium cost $1 at Michael's (after 50% off coupon), and everything else I already had on hand. I didn't take any "during" photos, so this may not technically be a tutorial, but I'll try to describe the process as best I can.
Chevron Stripes - Masking Tape
I began by cutting a piece of cereal box to fit inside the shirt so that the paint wouldn't bleed through. Slide it into the shirt and make sure it's all situated. (Do this on every shirt.) Then I began placing masking tape in chevron stripes across the shirt. This took me maybe 30 minutes or so. I didn't want to paint on the sleeves or the neckline casing so I taped those areas off. Once I had all the tape in position I mixed my paint and textile medium and painted onto the shirt with a foam brush. I let it dry overnight then peeled the tape off and ironed the shirt to heat set the paint. I was worried that it might bleed on other clothing the first time I washed it but you definitely don't need to worry about that. It's on there to stay. ;]
Mustache - Freezer Paper Stencil
My kid has a thing for mustaches. And let's face it, they're trendy right now. My brother taught her (quite awhile ago) to put her finger under her nose and say "mustache!" So she does that, and she also does it with pens and pencils and anything else she deems fit to be a mustache. So basically, she needed a mustache shirt. The method I used for this shirt was freezer paper stenciling. This is such an awesome thing. Freezer paper is available in the baggies/plastic wrap section of your grocery store. I printed off a mustache from google images, layed it atop a piece of cardboard (to protect the table) then placed an appropriate sized piece of freezer paper (shiny side down) on top of the printout. You can see through the freezer paper to your mustache underneath, so just cut out the mustache with a utility/x-acto knife and you have your stencil! Simply iron the stencil (shiny side down again) onto your shirt and paint with a foam brush! I decided to speed the process up a little by drying with the blow dryer so I could peel off the stencil and see! I love love love how it came out. I did a couple coats of paint to make it nice and dark.
Anchors Away! - Homemade Stamp
I just made this one today. I love the weathered look that the stamping provides. I used a great tutorial I found to make my own stamp and stamp pad. I'm sure this saved me tons of aggravation. And yeah, I totally stole her stamp idea. But it's way cute, can you blame me?? ;] Oh, and what you don't see is that Ziva added her own touch to this shirt (on the back) the day after I made the first one. She pretty much squeezed the entire bottle of teal into a big blob and Ben scraped it all off and put it back in the bottle. Teehee. It has character. =]
All in all I love these unique and cute tshirts. What I don't love is the quality of the shirts themselves, so I'll look elsewhere next time, but for about $2 a shirt I'll try not to complain. I'm looking forward to making some long sleeved ones for fall!
What ideas do you have for fall inspired tshirts? I'm thinking leaves and apple stamping! (With the real thing!)
