Tutorial - Fabric Painted T-Shirt

Other embellishing techniques taught by the "Creative Touches" 4-H project are fabric painting and using buttons. One of the categories to exhibit at the fair is a shirt, showing specific techniques from the project. This year Miss Abigail used fabric painting on her shirt. We saw a book at the library on sponge painting and thought that this would be fun to try as a "foliage" background for some pretty flower buttons we saw at the craft store.

The materials included the T-shirt, two colors of green fabric paint, a sea sponge, and the decorative flower buttons.

Abigail placed a sheet of cardboard between the layers of the shirt, so that the paint would not bleed onto the other side. She soaked the sponge in water to make it pliable and then wrung it out well. The sponge should be just damp. She dabbed the sponge in the darker green paint and blotted it off onto a paper towel. Then she dabbed the paint across the front of the shirt. She was trying to mimic a border of leaves and foliage.

She repeated the same process with the lighter green paint.

This sponging technique is really quite simple. Abigail continued to add paint until she felt like there was plenty of "foliage" for the flower buttons.

When the paint was completely dry, Miss Abigail added the flower buttons. Hand sewing assures that they are attached securely to the shirt.

Finished! Abigail really liked the way it turned out. It can be dressy if worn with a skirt, or casual if she wants to wear jeans. The shirt is just what we imagined that it would be. Don't you love it when the actual product comes together as you planned it?

To learn the technique, before doing the shirt, I had Abigail practice on a dishtowel. After painting the foliage, Abigail made simple "dot" flowers with fabric paint, instead of using buttons. I like having another nice dishtowel in my kitchen drawer! Sponge painting would be a quick way to make a cute set of towels for a wedding or shower gift, or to place in the hope chest.