Do you ever feel like you have a clear idea of what you want, but you can’t find it anywhere? I’ve been feeling that way about sweaters. I’ve envisioned a certain cat-printed sweater, and despite my avid Polyvore-ing, I’ve found nothing that comes close to what I want! What’s a girl with oddly specific preferences to do?!
Answer: custom stamping. It’s the easiest ever D.I.Y. project for those of us with singular tastes and short attention spans. If you can use scissors and move your hands, then you too can create your own beautiful, creative and custom clothes!
A Beautiful Mess‘s Elsie walks readers through the process:
What you’ll need:
-Clean, ironed sweater (she used a dress)
-Craft foam (or even a sponge)
-Fabric paint
-Paint brush/roller (optional)
-Scissors or X-acto knife
1. Trace your desired shape onto the foam, and cut it out. You can either freehand this, or find a template online (which is what I did). If you’re real fancy and good at crafting, you can glue this foam cut-out onto a little block of wood to make it a real stamp, but this is not neccessary.
2. Coat the stamp in fabric paint. I reccommend brushing the paint onto the stamp instead of just dipping the stamp into the paint…this made the paint less goopy on the fabric.
3. Slip cardboard or newspaper inside the sweater to prevent any possibility of the paint seeping through to the other side of the garment.
4. Start stamping in your desired pattern. Go ahead and get stamp cRaZy!
5. Use the brush to touch up any problem areas on the fabric.
6. Allow paint to dry for 24 hours before flipping the sweater over and doing the other side.
7. Wear your sexy new sweater!
A few tips for after care:
Wait to wash the garment for at least 72 hours after stamping, and when you do, turn it inside out and wash on low heat. It’s also better if you air dry the garment instead of throwing it in the dryer. And, lastly, try not to iron directly on the paint! These tips should prevent most fading, although some fading is inevitable.
Lovelies — what stamps would you guys try?!
orchid / 191 posts
lovin it! def trying this on a blank tshirt first