Tshirt painting; stencils and textile paint
2010-Dec-11, Saturday 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebePreviously whenever I painted a tshirt I bought dedicated tubes of fabric paint. This stuff is thick, plasticy, and good for 3D effects. But it is too stiff to be comfortable when used over large areas. While browsing the Art & Hobby Shop I came across a wonderful discovery. Daler Rowney System 3 Textile Medium. System 3 is their acrylic range, and to make fabric paint all you do is mix these acrylics in 1-to-1 ratio with this medium! Voilá, any fabric paint colour you ever wanted is now attainable. (Also, the textile medium is specifically formulated to work with screen-printing, but can be used in any method for application to textiles.)
I can get excited. Very excited. And some people have taken to telling me to "Enhance your calm". (Guess the film?) I decided it would be nice to own my passion, and put this phrase on a tshirt. Only, I don't know anything about printing. So I found myself a book. Printing by Hand. It's a lovely book with a spiral spine that covers Stamping, Stenciling, and Screen Printing. Well then, let's get started.
Here are the tools; small paint-brushes, large paint-brush (trimmed to create a flat end for stenciling), paint mixing tray, System 3 Textile medium, System 3 acrylic paints (including a tube of Interference colour in blue tint, it adds metallic sheen to your paints), craft knife, template plastic (mine from Sew Easy, apparently aka mylar), and temporary textile spray adhesive (mine is 505).
First things first, let's try out the fabric paint! I got a Bitter Ruin "The Vice" tshirt when they played here. I don't know about you, but white outlines on black whispers to me, teasing me, pleading with me to fill it with colour. It would have been rude to resist.
Okay, that worked out great! Let's make a stencil. I realise the quote is from 'Demolition Man', but that film doesn't have a kick-ass font. Now 'Blade Runner', that has a great font, and is conveniently designed so that there are no islands, everything is connected to an edge. Which translates as perfect for making a stencil.
I installed the font (in Fedora just copy to /home/user/.fonts, log-out and log back in, and the system will automatically pick it up), used it to write my chosen phrase, and printed it out. I placed this beneath a sheet of template plastic, secured with some masking-tape, and traced out the font with a craft knife. Remember, craft knife means use a cutting mat. Unless, that is, you don't like your table.
This took longer than I expected. The plastic is quite thick (maybe there is thinner plastic out there) and took at least three scores with the knife before I cut through. I had to keep stopping as my hand cramped. Perhaps I should have started with a simpler design with less edges. But if I did I wouldn't be me. It's also really easy to slip with the knife. Luckily my fingers survived, but I've few extra cuts in my template that I hadn't intended.
Then all that's left is to use the stencil to paint the tshirt. Spray some of the temporary fabric glue onto the back of the stencil (hold about 30cm away, prime on spare paper on first use until an even spray comes out). Position on the tshirt, press in place lightly.
Mix up the paints, dip the stipple brush in, then blot on scrap paper/fabric to remove excess. Then apply in up-down stabby motions. When finished peel off stencil, lay on tissue paper or greaseproof paper, and wipe off excess paint. Leave tshirt to dry.
(Always place thick paper or card inside the tshirt under the design, so the paint doesn't bleed through onto the back.)
Only thing left to do is fix the paint. Once dry (allow ~24 hours) heat-fix the paint with an iron; iron (turn off steam) on the reverse of the design, with scrap fabric on the otherside to avoid staining your ironing board. Then wait a few days before washing.
Your stencil is reusable, and the thickness of the plastic also makes it very durable. Now that the hard-work is done I can stencil away on as many things as I like. Obsession, here I come.
I can get excited. Very excited. And some people have taken to telling me to "Enhance your calm". (Guess the film?) I decided it would be nice to own my passion, and put this phrase on a tshirt. Only, I don't know anything about printing. So I found myself a book. Printing by Hand. It's a lovely book with a spiral spine that covers Stamping, Stenciling, and Screen Printing. Well then, let's get started.
Here are the tools; small paint-brushes, large paint-brush (trimmed to create a flat end for stenciling), paint mixing tray, System 3 Textile medium, System 3 acrylic paints (including a tube of Interference colour in blue tint, it adds metallic sheen to your paints), craft knife, template plastic (mine from Sew Easy, apparently aka mylar), and temporary textile spray adhesive (mine is 505).
First things first, let's try out the fabric paint! I got a Bitter Ruin "The Vice" tshirt when they played here. I don't know about you, but white outlines on black whispers to me, teasing me, pleading with me to fill it with colour. It would have been rude to resist.
 |
 |
Okay, that worked out great! Let's make a stencil. I realise the quote is from 'Demolition Man', but that film doesn't have a kick-ass font. Now 'Blade Runner', that has a great font, and is conveniently designed so that there are no islands, everything is connected to an edge. Which translates as perfect for making a stencil.
I installed the font (in Fedora just copy to /home/user/.fonts, log-out and log back in, and the system will automatically pick it up), used it to write my chosen phrase, and printed it out. I placed this beneath a sheet of template plastic, secured with some masking-tape, and traced out the font with a craft knife. Remember, craft knife means use a cutting mat. Unless, that is, you don't like your table.
This took longer than I expected. The plastic is quite thick (maybe there is thinner plastic out there) and took at least three scores with the knife before I cut through. I had to keep stopping as my hand cramped. Perhaps I should have started with a simpler design with less edges. But if I did I wouldn't be me. It's also really easy to slip with the knife. Luckily my fingers survived, but I've few extra cuts in my template that I hadn't intended.
 |
 |
Then all that's left is to use the stencil to paint the tshirt. Spray some of the temporary fabric glue onto the back of the stencil (hold about 30cm away, prime on spare paper on first use until an even spray comes out). Position on the tshirt, press in place lightly.
Mix up the paints, dip the stipple brush in, then blot on scrap paper/fabric to remove excess. Then apply in up-down stabby motions. When finished peel off stencil, lay on tissue paper or greaseproof paper, and wipe off excess paint. Leave tshirt to dry.
 |
 |
(Always place thick paper or card inside the tshirt under the design, so the paint doesn't bleed through onto the back.)
Only thing left to do is fix the paint. Once dry (allow ~24 hours) heat-fix the paint with an iron; iron (turn off steam) on the reverse of the design, with scrap fabric on the otherside to avoid staining your ironing board. Then wait a few days before washing.
Your stencil is reusable, and the thickness of the plastic also makes it very durable. Now that the hard-work is done I can stencil away on as many things as I like. Obsession, here I come.
