Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I painted tee shirts and sold them in stores all over, including at Silver Dollar City in Branson, at crafts shows, and local shops.
I painted so many that I said I was done forever. (One year I painted 1,000). Since then, I’ve whipped up a few as gifts for new babies, but that’s about it. I did a couple for Sugarwings, but my heart just wasn’t in it.
Recently, the idea of painted shirts was again lurking in my head. I’d accumulated a pile of flannels that I wanted to sell this fall at Good Juju, and considered embroidering them, but knew it would take hours and I could not sell them for enough to pay for my time.
So, I thought I’d try a few painted ones. I’m much faster with a brush than a needle.
First, they needed to be slightly bleached out to soften the plaid design. Which was simple, since Sugarwings and I had been experimenting with bleach painting last week. I dunked these flannels while we had our bleach mess set up in the driveway, and left them in the sun to dry and was happy with the less vinbrant look of the plaid after they were done.
After a quick job with a brush and acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium, they dry for 24 hours, get heat set with an iron, and then washed and dried.
That might sound like a lot of work, but it all goes pretty quickly. Please wish me luck with them, I hope they sell!
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