Painting on Fabric (A Tutorial)

Boo and I did some fabric painting this weekend! She made a cute rainbow applique top and I transformed a stained t-shirt into a bright, fun top!

We started with this Setacolor transparent fabric paint starter kit:


Other materials we used:
Freezer Paper
Light colored knit or woven fabric (or an old t-shirt)
Disappearing ink pen


First, I cut out freezer paper and ironed it to the back of my white knit to stabilize it for Boo to paint on (waxy side to wrong side of fabric).


I used a disappearing ink pen to sketch out a rainbow shape for a guide:


I mixed each paint color with a bit of water and spritzed the fabric a little to dampen it so the color would flow onto the fabric easier:


The artist at work:


After the entire rainbow was painted.....


.....we sprinkled it with a little table salt and spritzed it with a light mist of water again to get a "crystal" look....


.....and then laid it in the sun to dry (with a guard dog):


The artist added some light blue paint to some more fabric for clouds:


Once the fabric was dry I removed the freezer paper from the back and ironed both sides of the fabric for 2-3 minutes to set the paint:


To make the rainbow applique I ironed paper-backed fusible adhesive to the back of the painted fabric and then sketched out the rainbow and clouds on the paper:


I cut out shapes and ironed them to activate the fusible adhesive paper:


I used my sewing machine to secure the appliques and add decorative stitching:


The artist happy with her work:



I did some painting of my own inspired by this landscape painting I did last year using an old t-shirt:


I dampened the entire t-shirt and painted in horizontal lines across the entire shirt:


I just kept adding color until I was happy with the look. Then I sprinkled it with salt and left it to dry in the sun.


Turned out totally cool and unique!