I liked how this DIY project turned out. It was very easy to do. The stencil work is really quick, but the ribbon is a bit time consuming. You could paint on the line-work, or use machine embroidery to make the project a bit quicker.
I had a t-shirt that I wanted to customize, and thought a while about what to do. I like the look of argyle, and thought it might be easy to do with fabric paint.
I started by picking my colour scheme. I already had the blue t-shirt, so I did a Google image search for “argyle” for inspiration, and chose brown and blue.
I wanted a fairly big pattern. I cut a diamond stencil out of card….mine diamond is 5” tall by 3” wide. You could scale it depending on how big or small you want the pattern.
I started with the middle row of brown squares, working from the neckline down. When using fabric paint, put some cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from seeping through. I used a makeup sponge to apply the paint. They work well for stencilling, and are a lot cheaper than disposable paint brushes. If you want a very strong, solid block of colour, you’ll need to apply more than one coat of fabric paint. I liked the slightly faded look of one coat, so I left it that way.
After the brown row, I did the yellow rows. Make sure to line your stencil straight each time. Once I have the stencil in place, I tape it on one or two corners to keep it there.
I left the paint to dry 24 hours before starting on the ribbon. I pinned on all of the ribbon and then hand stitched it on. This was pretty time-consuming, but not hard.
Here’s the finished product:
Tags: Craft by Mel
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