445 Earth Day T-Shirt - Fiber Arts Friday

You can just start blaming the kids for my lack of posts. Connor is on a mission to destroy as much of my home and sanity as possible, so there is very little time to sit in front of a computer. Only to get worse once school is out for the summer I am sure.

I decided to make Katie an Earth Day T-shirt on Friday... Hey, it counts for Fiber Art Friday... t-shirt is a fiber! I procrastinate, it is not news...

I googled pictures of the globe, and decided to use a heart shaped version. There are a ton of royalty free image out there. Enlarge and print out a copy.

Place your cloth or t-shirt over the image and trace with a fabric marker. It won't be perfect, but then all you really need is the basic shape of the continents to get your point across with this image. I first did this on a piece of cloth with the idea that I would then sew it onto the shirt, but decided to paint directly on the t-shirt instead. I think I will use my first attempt to make a small art quilt hanging. Perfect for next week...

I used a textile medium to convert my regular acrylic paint into a washable paint. This bottle is at least 8 years old, so I am sure the look has changed. It is very easy to use. One part textile medium to two parts acrylic paint.

Begin filling in your image. Try to get as thin of a coat as possible while still covering completely.

It says to let it dry for 7 days ... I let it dry for 24 hours. It seems to be working fine, but you might want to actually follow directions ;)  Hand wash and hang to dry. You will also need to heat set the paint. Make sure you use an ironing cloth. My iron dribbled on my piece and I had to re-wash it. Good news though, it definitely held up through two washings...

Connor's shirt is from one he had stained. There is a small picture on the chest that I painted over. Gotta love recycling a shirt for Earth Day.

Now to get my children clean and cooperative for a picture of them wearing my masterpieces ...