by Bea Sheftel

The Painted Design Tee Shirt

If you are like me, you like to have a few gifts you have lovingly made yourself. I start out in the summer planning what I’m going to make. It seems as if I have a lot of time to finish my projects. This year, for instance, I told myself I’d make a lap blanket for several relatives. I have half of one finished. Life interfers with good intentions!

I still will be giving hand made gifts this year that will show my love, and also be practical because they don’t cost a lot. Here are some ideas you might wish to use.

PAINTED HOBBY TEE SHIRTS

Buy packages of men’s tee shirts in sizes to fit your family members. White is the easiest to work with, but you may use colored ones also. Buy the kind with short sleeves, but no pockets. Wash the tee shirts. They have sizing in them. Once they are washed they are easier to paint.

Go to your fabric store and see if you can find material with designs of hobbies or interests. I have found football, baseball, and soccer material designs, as well as cars, trains, trucks, golf designs and fishing designs at Jo Ann Etc. You only need 1/4 of a yard per tee shirt, maybe even less depending on the size of the shirt. Wash this also. You can also buy prepared iron on designs.

You can adher these to the tee shirts in different ways. You can buy inexpensive iron on material that adhers the design to the tee shirt. You can also buy fabric glue that does the same thing. I find the Aileen’s products are the best.

With the iron on product you turn the design fabric to the wrong side and iron on the product. It will have a peel off backing. The safest way to iron this on is to use a cotton cloth over it to protect your iron and keep the iron from scorching.

Open the tee shirt and place over the ironing board so only the top one shows. Cut out your designs. Do a sample placement. When you know what you want to do, peel off the backing. Again, using a cotton cloth, press down with the iron and hold for a few seconds to the backing melts and sticks the fabric to the tee shirt.

I do a bunch of tees.

Use heavy cardboard. I cut mine from boxes. You can also get good sturdy box cardboard from the post office for a nominal sum. Cut a rectangular piece to fit different size shirts. I have small, medium and large. Place this inside the tee shirt. Work on a smooth, hard surface like a kitchen table.

With fabric paints outline the designs. Make sure you paint on the fabric and the tee shirt. This will finish the edging the prevent unraveling and give a nice painted look to your design. The paint takes 24 hours to dry thoroughly. Leave the tee shirt flat. If you have to move it, move it with the cardboard inside, but keep it flat.

After 24 hours, I hang the tee shirts on hangers and let them stay for another 24 hours to make sure they are absolutely dry inside and out. This is especially true when you use thick fabric paint. You can wrap them in tissue and package them after that.

For my nephew I added, “Nana’s good boy.” For my little niece I added, “Nana’s Brat,” at the request of my sister (their Nana). You could personalize the tee shirts, but check with the mothers first. Some don’t want their children’s names on their tees for security reasons.

Once you start working with iron on designs and fabric paints you’ll find plenty of other uses. I’ve made tote bags. My niece loves Bingo so I made her a bingo bag. You can decorate sweat shirts, vests, even scarfs. One particularly beautiful gift I made was a painted table cloth. I bought the table cloth material by the yard. I needed two yards for the whole design. I chose white on white. Then I painted the designs in the colors of the dining room or kitchen of the recipient. In one case I bought a Christmas white on white material and painted it with Christmas colors. This is pulled out year after year as an “heirloom” gift.

A store bought painted tee costs from $15 to $20. Sweatshirts can cost upwards of $30. The tablecloths have been sold for as much as $100. You can make these items yourself, save money, and have gifts from the heart. You are only limited by your own creativity.

About the Author: Bea Sheftel lives in Connecticut. She is married to her lifelong sweetheart and has one adult son and two dogs. She has published literally hundreds of articles, poems and short fiction in magazines, newspapers, and online. She currently teaches memoir writing and also how to write a confession story at Painted Rock for writers. She is also an editor at Suite101on the topic of homelessness. Besides her own writing, she keeps busy reading books and doing book reviews for online and print magazines.

  • Share/Bookmark

Related posts:

  1. Christmas Crafts, Crafts for Kids Hello Crafters, In this issue, you will find the five...
  2. Thoughtful and Practical Gifts from the Heart Despite recent predictions that we’re coming out of the recession,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.