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Fabric is my surface of choice! If you're a wood painter, don't be intimidated, it's really not difficult. Besides, it's a relaxing change of pace--no sanding, sealing or other prep and when you're finished, no varnishing. And there's no better way to show off your art than to wear it! Here are some tips for getting started:
1. Wash and dry article to remove sizing. If you don't do this, the sizing may prevent the paint from bonding well with the fibers in the garment and your painting will not stay bright and clear as long as it should. Also, if the garment is going to shrink, it is best that it does this before you paint it. Don't use fabric softener in the wash water or in the dryer before painting. It's okay to use it after you have painted the garment, however.
2. With tracing paper placed over the pattern, trace the main outlines of the design leaving out as many of the details as possible. This is intended to be a guideline only. (I never trace leaf veins, pupils in eyes, etc.) After tracing, turn the paper over to the back side, lay another piece of tracing paper on top of the first tracing, then using a Heat Transfer Pen, retrace again. This keeps your design from being reversed when you iron it onto the garment.
Use a dry iron for all iron-on methods and make sure the temperature is right for the fabric you're using. Make sure your pattern is pinned in place so you won't get a double image if the iron slips. There is also available, usually in fabric stores, a roll of heat resistant tape (like Scotch tape) only it's blue in color. You can use this to tape your pattern in place and not worry about it melting if the iron touches it.
I prefer a heat transfer pen made by Brohman Products, Berrien Springs, MI 49103 which will make as many as 8 to 10 iron-ons from one tracing. This pen comes with an extra tip hidden in the end of the barrel. Don't know how many pens I threw away with the extra tip still there, the packaging doesn't mention it.
Sulky also makes heat transfer pens and these come in colors though I must admit, I don't care for their white one. I like to use the red for tracing roses, green for leaves, etc. when I don't want the black lines to show through my painting. All these pens work good on light-colored fabrics.
For dark fabrics, you can use a white berol china marker available in hardware and art supply stores. Trace as above and iron on as if you were using a transfer pen. Or you may use regular blackboard chalk to retrace the lines, place on fabric, chalk side down and rub with fingers or a credit card edge. You will have to be careful while painting though to keep from rubbing your pattern off.
3. I recommend using paints designed for use on fabric, however, sometimes I cannot find the colors I need in these paints so I switch to acrylics. When using the acrylics, add fabric or textile medium. Mix about 50/50 with the paints. This doesn't have to be exact, just until you get a good consistency for painting. You can mix paints at time of painting on your palette or you can mix in air-tight containers for longer storage if you use the same colors a lot for fabric painting. Remember that some paints such as the fabric dyes or paints made especially for fabric do not require the addition of fabric medium. Always check the label of the paint you are planning to use.
You can use a sta-wet palette, a foam meat tray, or make your own palette from Kabnet wax sheets--a deli paper. Just put a wet paper towel between the sheet of Kabnet wax.
4. After all your paints are mixed, place a shirt board inside your garment or you can use a piece of cardboard covered with waxed freezer paper (shiny side out). Pin excess fabric out of the way such as sleeves and hems.
5. All of my patterns have code marks to indicate where to place the shading and highlighting colors. /////// indicates where to shade and xxxxx indicates where to highlight.
6. I use a wet-on-wet technique, always basecoating small sections at a time, shading, highlighting and then moving on to basecoat another section. I do this while the basecoat is still wet because this allows the shading and highlighting colors to actually soak into the fabric and you get a smoother blend. I basecoat with a medium value and then use one and sometimes two darker values for shading and one or two values for highlighting as well.
The method I use for shading (or highlighting) along the edge of a shape is to draw (with the brush) on the wet basecoat a thin line of the shading color in the area where the //// marks appear on the pattern, then pull the shading color out to cover the desired area and then using my brush, sort of like an eraser on a pencil, I move it lightly back and forth across the area where the shading color meets the rest of the basecoat until you really can't tell where one color stops and the other begins--just a smooth transistion of color from dark at the edge getting lighter and lighter as you go outward. Sort of like "floating" color on wood but I haven't had to side load my brush.
When doing highlighting in the center of an object, I place a dot of the color (where x's will be on pattern) . Then using my brush, I lightly pat, pat, pat the highlight until it begins to melt into the wet basecoat. Then I refine the edges by lightly brushing from the basecoat back into the highlight area. Don't carry this too far as you might completely lose your highlight. You can always strengthen it by adding more paint and repeating the process if necessary. Work quickly though as you want the basecoat to remain wet.
It's hard to explain these techniques exactly in words, but I do have a video tape which shows all these techniques. It's an hour and forty five minutes long and is designed to give beginners all the basics they need to paint on fabric.
7. I wait till the paint is dry to add details--things like eyelashes, outlining, etc. Sometimes I use a permanent black marker. My favorite is the Pigma Sumi Brush. This is really a pen with a fine tip on one end and broad on the other. I've found this one is really permanent and doesn't bleed when the garment is laundered. Always test the pen you are going to use on a scrap of fabric first to make sure you know what it will do when it gets wet.
You may also use a liner brush with paint that has been thinned slightly with water. Be careful though because water causes paint to bleed on fabric. I have a little saying that I tell beginners--thin paint makes thin lines. I always use the very tip of my liner brush which has been well loaded with paint and hold it perpendicular to the surface with not much pressure to make my thin lines.
8. Let everything dry thoroughly and heat set if necessary. Check the label of the paints you are using to see if this is required. If you are going to be using dimensional paints or glitters on your projects, it is best to heat set first and add these afterwards.
9. You can wear your garment, but please wait from 7 to 10 days for the paint to cure before laundering the first time. I usually wash my painted garments by hand when I want them to last a long time. When they're not new anymore, I go ahead and put them in the washer on gentle cycle. I'm still wearing some shirts I painted in 1991. Be sure to use a mild detergent (I use a liquid one like ALL or Tide) that doesn't have bleach or lemon scent added. I don't recommend Woolite. And it's okay now to use fabric softener. If your garment doesn't have any glitter or stones on it, it can go in the dryer. Hang others to dry.
Hope you will be anxious to begin a fabric project and enjoy creating, "A work of Art to Wear!"
