Sunflower Shirt

Today I painted a flower on a shirt. It had a very ugly grease stain front and center. I thought about making the shirt into a rag or just wearing it around the house, but I don't have a lot of these type t shirts and I wanted to save this one.

First I laid my shirt out on the table, and put papers inside, so the paint wouldn't transfer through to the back. Then I went to the kitchen to get the water and when I came back, it seems my cat Mintyfresh had other ideas for the shirt. At least there was no wet paint on it.



Then I started the painting. I did it freehand because I'm very used to painting flowers. But you could cut out a pattern or just sketch one with some tailor's chalk.

I used Golden brand acrylics. They are not specifically a fabric paint, but I have had much luck with them painting on fabric. In fact I prefer them to fabric paints. They are heavily pigmented and last well.

It's important to have a stiff brush to scrub the paint into the fabric. Usually I like to paint acrylics with a soft brush, but I use bristle here.

I ironed them to set (with a cloth over them).

I bought some copper colored iridescent seed beads, and I'm thinking of sewing them in the middle in a random pattern, kind of like seeds. But I'm thinking the comfort may suffer, and I wear this shirt to the gym.

We are also moving, so it's a time thing as well. This shirt is a little big for me, so I don't want to spend a ton of time on it. It looks good enough as is and I'm just glad I can wear it outside the house. I'm going to use the sunflower/seed bead idea for something else.

Here's me in the shirt:
Those are some of my paintings in the background, and what I didn't notice as I was taking this photo - my cat Oliver in the left bottom corner.

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.