My First Tutorial... I really hope you enjoy it! No sewing is required and even your 3 year old can participate... Make your own sailor inspired t-shirt....
What you will need:
1 T-shirt
Blue fabric paint
Stencil Paintbrush or any paint brush really!
Masking Tape
Scissors
Ruler
1 piece of carboard
Some cord or shoe lace
Eyelets if you like!
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| example of fabric paint |
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example of stencil paint brushes
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STEP 1: Get a white T-shirt... I got mine at Walmart 3 Tees for 6$, so if you mess one up, you don't feel to guilty trying it out again! These tees where in the underwear section, I got them a little bigger because they shrink a lot in the wash. And before you do anything... wash & dry your tees for better results.
STEP 2: Insert a piece of cardboard in your t-shirt, this will avoid the paint to go through and stain the backside of your tee. Also, I recommend putting some plastic or paper to protect your table, especially if you are doing this with the kids!
STEP 3: Lay your t-shirt flat. Get your masking tape and choose where you want your first stripe to go. I started mine right at the underarms... that way I am pretty sure my stripes will be straight! Put your tape across the t-shirt, you can even extend the tape over by a little and tape down you t-shirt to the table so it doesn't move... P.S. The width of your stripes will depend on the size of your masking tape. You can get all kinds of sizes in the paint department of your hardware store. I used one that was about 1.25 cm.
STEP 4: Get a ruler if you want even stripes. I used a transparent ruler, it makes the job way easier... Now determine how wide you want your blue stripes to be... mine are 1.5 cm. and add a new piece of masking tape... Do this until you have the amount of stripes you want... I put 4 strips of tape for 3 blue stripes.
STEP 5: I recommend you do this step if your doing this with your children or if you want to be sure no paint get onto the rest of the t-shirt. Get 2 sheets paper, of any kind, big enough to cover up your t-shirt. I used some pages of a magazine that I was going to recycle. Tape the sheets to either side of your stripes...
STEP 6: Get your paint brushes (stencil brushes do a really great job on fabric) & paint ( choose fabric paint for best results, acrylic paint will do if you have some and don't want to buy new paint! However, the paint dries thicker and stiffer!) Start Painting... It doesn't have to be perfect!!! Let it dry.
STEP 7: Once dry, remove masking tape carefully and iron your t-shirt. If you are using fabric paint, you
absolutely must iron your t-shirt to heat set the paint, or else you will loose the paint in the wash.
STEP 8: Fold your t-shirt in 2 and cut straight from the neck line up until your first stripe, this will create your opening.
STEP 9: Turn your t-shirt inside out ( not like me!), now you have 2 options... You can use Eyelets for a more finished touch, but be sure you find the kind that have a backing to them, or else it will not work (that's what happened here!) I opted not to use the eyelet and just made some holes... Choose where you want your holes to be... I recommend putting them 1 cm from the edge. Choose where your first and last holes are going to be. Then measure the distance between the two and divide it by 3, that will give the distance between the wholes. If that's to complicated, then just eye it! Mark you t-shirt preferably with a pencil or something not to dark ( i used black just so you would see).
STEP 10: For this step you can use some scissors, a hole puncher or anything pointy ( like a brochette stick or ice picker) and Create some holes, not to big, where you marked them in the previous step. Be patient and take your time, you don't want to rip you t-shirt!
STEP 11: Take some cord, or shoe lace work really well ( because of the plastic edge) and lace up your tee... If your lace is to long, make a tight knot and cut off the extra bit. That's it!
Mister M really enjoyed painting his t-shirt and was so proud to wear his own design... If you try this, send me some pics!!!!
