Painted Letter Shirts

Wedding of Q and U Part 2

Another part of Caden's costume that I made was his shirt.  Again, another super easy peasy project.  It was so much fun I actually want to do this again with other prints (stencils).

Materials:
A shirt fit to size of wearer
Fabric glue(s); color(s) of your choice
A peice of thick cardstock or cardboard paper (easy to cut) 1' squared
A peice of thick cardboard or foam core about 1' squared
Scissors
Paintbrush with fine bristles
4 Paper clamps or some other clamps

Instructions:

1. Either find a stencil pre-made or make your own.  If you are making your own, get your easy to cut thick cardstock or cardboard paper.  I used the cardboard that you get when you buy a pack of cardstock because it was thick and sturdy but easy to cut.
2. Draw the object you want squared in the middle of the page.  I made a "C" in this example.
3. Cut the object out.  Keep in mind that you don't need to perfect the cutout....you want to perfect the stencil.  I would start off cutting the inside parts of your lines.  That way if you have any imperfections, you can cut into the stencil further without messing it up.
4. Put the foam core square inside of the shirt.  Make sure its squared.  This provides leverage as well as prevents the paint from bleeding onto the backside.
5.  Place on top of the shirt the stencil you wish to use, making double-sure its squared onto the shirt.  The foam core and your stencil should be the same size, make sure they are lined up as well.
6.  Pull shirt taught (but not stretched) enough to prevent any wrinklage.  Clamp all peices down on top, bottom and sides.
7. Using the fabric paint, paint away inside your stencil.  You don't have to be perfect inside the lines (hence why you have the stencil.  In fact, paint outside of the lines too as this would create a nice straight line on the shirt.  Use tons of paint, the more paint the more vivid your image will be.

This is what it should look like at this point (minus the stencil):

8. (Note: do not take off stencil just yet).  Put all parts off to side and let dry.  Not outside because you don't want to bugs, leaves or pollen to get stuck in the paint.,

9. Once dry, undo clamps first.  Slowly, peel away the stencil ensuring not to chip paint.  Then take out the foam core on the inside. 

Viola!