You Gotta Fight

In my previous update I promised you more to come. I had bought a plain white t-shirt that I wanted to jazz up. Well, perhaps ‘jazz up’ isn’t the right expression when you’re alluding to Beastie Boys. Pimp is really the word I need to return to. First, I must confess that I didn’t come up with this idea myself. I saw the text on a t-shirt in a shop and thought it was brilliant. It didn’t come in my colour, though, so I decided to DIY it.

Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up enough for me to be able to wear it without turning blue.

Here’s how I did it:

1. If you’re going to print on a t-shirt you need to wash it first to get rid of any chemicals that might interfere with the paint.

2. I designed the text in black block letters with the help of a computer and MS Word (font: Stencil), and printed it onto plain printer paper. I drew the arty letters freehand.

3. I traced the text onto a paper called ‘Magic paper’ (similar to freezer paper) and cut the shapes out with a craft knife. Remember to use a self-healing mat to protect your surface. Or use scissors.

4. I then ironed the paper to my t-shirt, put a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to protect the back of the shirt from paint and applied the black textile paint with a foam roller.

5. I used a smaller foam dauber for the arty letters and applied two coats of paint: one purple and one metallic gold to highlight certain areas.

6. When the paint was dry I ironed the print to set the paint.

Cardboard, printout and stencil.

 I removed the stencil carefully, so I can reuse it for another project.