Materials
I use acetate stencils, I’m sure other stencil material will work as well. They can’t be to thick though.
Fabric paint seems to work for me. It goes on nice and thick. I keep a stock of primary colours that make it easy to mix up. For white I have a pot of supercover white, which is a lot thicker but will go on black no problem.
1 litre tubs cost about $20 AU for normal colours and $30 AU for supercover. You can get smaller pots for about $8AU. It takes a long time to get through a small pot. I’ve found this brand (Permaset) Fabric paint at most ‘good’ art supply stores. Deans Art Supply in Melbourne has it. Also try Screen Printer Suppliers, you can pick up good wholesale prices.
Foam roller. You can usually get cheap ones from craft stores, I go through these pretty quickly so it’s best to buy heaps of cheap ones than splash out and try and buy one that will last. The paint just eats away the foam after a while. Sometimes you get a free little paint tray which is also useful.
Masking tape. Well what can you say.
Lay your stencil down and make sure the fabric is flat. Tape the stencil where ever you can. Mask off seams and stuff like that.
Load your roller up, you don’t need to much paint. The trick is to do more small coats than one sloppy one. You acquire a feel for rolling on fabric and you can begin to apply pressure. Make sure you have an even coat.
Be careful when ripping of stencil and tape.
Shirts will dry to be touch dry if you blast them with a hairdryer for a few seconds. So you can flip it over and print on the back if you'd like.
To heat seal a shirt put a piece of baking paper on the printed area and iron for a few minutes, just enough to heat it up and melt it a little. You can’t really burn it unless you walk away with the iron cooking your shirt.
If you are doing multiple layers I recommend heat sealing in between each colour. Now whack a tag on it and sell it in a store, give it away as a present or print up your very own Che Guevara shirt and jump off a cliff.
Enjoy or die
-ghostpatrol
Reproduced with Permission
