How to Start Fabric Painting

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By silkfair
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silk painting

If you're creative, then you will enjoy making cool patterns or designs on your t-shirts or dresses. You can make your own ponchos, decorate cushions, funky bags, cool jackets or whatever your fancy.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Fabric Paints
Fabric Brushes
Sponge/stencils
Plastic sheet
Masking Tape
Water and water container
Palette to mix colors

Step 1

Clean your fabric:

Before you start working on your fabric, make sure its clean. It might be a good idea to wash, dry and then iron it to remove wrinkles.
Step 2

Choose the appropriate Paints:

There are a number of fabric painting tubes, fabric painting pens to choose from. Make sure the paint you choose suits the fabric. Liquid paints work best on silks but don't work on black material (for that you'll need solid paint from tubes).
Step 3

Select the Painting Method:

There are several painting methods depending on your painting style - some like freehand designs, whereas others like the intricate stamped look. You can even make a combination of several kinds of painting effects on your shirt or fabric.
Step 4

Choose the Designing Pattern:

Choosing your design is fun and exciting - you can search for patterns on Google images. If you're brave, you can do a free-hand design without reference to any patterns or designs. Alternatively you can carefully trace the design through transfer pen and tracing paper.
Step 5

Start painting:

Once the design pattern is chosen, paints are ready to be applied, start painting. Go slowly while painting your piece; apply one color at a time. Always start with lighter colors. Make long strokes. If you are painting a flower, then start the petals from inside out with the lightest shade of color that you want, and keep adding colors as you go.
Step 6

Once Finished Wait for it to Dry:

It's a good idea to let it dry for a few hours so the colors will be thoroughly set. You also have to iron it from the backside for making the colors permanent.