Sunprint Shirts

So about four years ago I was flipping through channels while waiting for Brandon to come  home from work, something I still do, and I got caught up in some crafting show on PBS.  That is what happens when you only have over the air channels, but luckily PBS had four digital channels.  Anyway, I saw them do this really cool thing with fabric paint.  So I got some and we made shirts at a family reunion and then I promptly forgot about them.  When we moved I realized that I still had them, and I thought that this summer might be a good time to use them again.  And I managed to use them twice.  So money well spent right?  I may have to actually try using them as fabric paints instead of just doing the sunprinting but for now that is all I have used them for.  So here you go.

Okay, so first things first.  The paint is Setacolor Transparent fabric paint.  I found it at Michael's, but I don't remember how much it was.  Only the transparent colors will work, from what I have read.  I have four colors, red, yellow, blue, and pink.  I bought the pink because I couldn't mix pink.  But you can mix the colors together and it works just great.  If you are doing sunprinting you have to water the paint down.  I read somewhere that it was suggested a 2:1 ratio, water to paint, but you can water it down as much as you want the colors just won't be as vivid.  Then you need something to paint, natural fibers suggested.  I went out and got a couple of packs of undershirts so the kids could do this a couple of times.  Wash whatever it is you are going to be painting.

 Here is my watered down paint.  Since I was making shirts for Independence Day I was just using red and blue.

 My washed white shirt.  Inside the shirt I have a piece of cardboard with a plastic bag over it.  This is so the paint doesn't bleed through.  And you have to wet the fabric down before painting.  So I just sprayed it really well with a spray bottle.

I have no pictures taken during the actual painting process.  The watered down paint and the damp material makes the paint spread and bleed.  So it gives it a tied dye effect.  But you can leave more white between sections.  I was working fast because Brandon was at work and the kids were all over the place.  After you paint you make a design with whatever, I spelled out USA in pennies.  Press your design into paint so it sticks.  If you are using paper designs you may have to place something heavy on them if it is windy.  And then you put it out in the sun.  It can be done inside but it works faster outside in the sunlight.

 The coolest part, where you have placed your objects turns white.  The paint is drawn to the sunlight.

 So here is the whole design.  Not really fancy, but I had some unsupervised children whilst I was doing this so I went for simple.

Naked baby "helping" is completely optional.

We did shirts twice this summer, I mostly did the USA shirts by myself, and we had friends come paint with us one day.  And I took absolutely no pictures of that process.  But here are a couple of our shirts after.  We used stencils and craft sticks and canning lid rings.  Britton had used lots of colors on her shirt and then spilled the blue paint, so that is why the one shirt is mostly blue.

Once the paint is dry you heat set it, they suggest an iron but I have found that if you throw them in the dryer it works just fine.  Of course I tried to make a couple of shirts and wasn't happy with how they turned out, so I washed them in super hot water and bleach and the paint didn't budge at all.  So the paint has staying power.  And it doesn't feel like a painted shirt so it acts more like a dye.  So there you have it.  And the paint was still good four years after the purchase.