How to Pre-Treat Clothing Before Airbrushing

Airbrushed clothing is extremely popular, and as it increases in visibility on the day-to-day fashion scene, more and more people are learning to airbrush their own clothes for a unique, custom look. To get the best looks and the longest wear out of home-airbrushed clothing, follow a few simple steps to pretreat your clothes before you start to work on them. This will result in better-looking, more permanent designs that you can enjoy for years to come.

Instructions

1. Treat any spots on the clothing with stain remover. If you are working with brand-new clothes, this will probably not be necessary. However, if you are using older garments, then you need to try and get all stains out before you airbrush so that the stains do not negatively impact your design. Even if the stains are old and set, you may be able to lighten them up with stain remover so that they do not show through your paint.

2. Wash the clothes in hot water in a washing machine, using your normal laundry detergent. This will make sure that any shrinking or bleeding will happen before you airbrush the garment. You may wish to wash the item several times until it is clear that washing is not going to alter the garment any further. If you are concerned about the fabric's dye bleeding, then throw an old white sock in with the item. If the sock comes out tinted the same color as the item, then you need to wash the item again.

3. Dry the item in the dryer on high. This will make sure that the colors are set and that there will not be any more shrinking. Of course, if you are supposed to line-dry the item, do not dry it in the dyer. Follow the fabric care rules on the tags.

4. Iron your item. Any wrinkles in the material may show up as tiny white lines once you airbrush your design onto the article of clothing. Although you will stretch your clothing over a frame to airbrush it in most cases, hitting it with an iron is the best way to insure that your design shows up smooth and clear. Now, you are ready to let your artistic juices flow on your fully pretreated item of clothing.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you have airbrushed the piece of clothing, run a hot iron over the unpainted side of the fabric to set the ink. Also, do not wash airbrushed clothing in hot water because it is more likely to fade or wash out your design.