T Shirt Painting with Dylon - my mini fashion designer

The lovely people at Dylon recently sent us some fabric paints and pens to try out.

Ruby was very keen on the idea of wearing her work of art, and I thought we'd share how we did it and the 'spectacular' results!

We were given 2 pots of 3D paint - sea blue pearl paint and gold glitter paint.  As the name suggests, they create a raised, 3D effect on the fabric.

The instructions suggested we should launder new garments, but Ruby wasn't having any of that! She wanted to get creative, and she wanted to get creative NOW!

We used plain white T shirts (I'd managed to pick up this brand new pack of 2 in a charity shop for a quid).

You need to place something between the two layers of the fabric so the paint doesn't seep through to the back.  It also helps to have a flat surface to work on, so we just used the cardboard that came in the T shirt packaging and pegged it in place.

Shake the bottle and then apply the paint by holding the nozzle just above the fabric and squeezing.  Ruby is not quite 3 years old yet, and she managed this fine on her own - although she did want to squeeze it into one giant blob!  I showed her how we could 'drag' the paint and make pretty starburst patterns.

The gold glitter paint was a little more tricky.  The glitter had got clogged in the nozzle, but a quick prod with a pin and it soon unblocked it so it could flow freely.  Ruby had such a great time squirting and creating her design - personally I think the thrill of actually being allowed to draw on clothes was a big appeal!

The finished design was then left to dry - out of her reach as she kept 'checking it'!

Next we moved on to the broad nib pens.  We were given a red and a purple.

Ruby loves to colour with pens, but she's a bit slap-dash.  We struggled a bit more with these as they tended to 'drag' the fabric - even though we had it pegged. Maybe we should have done it tauter.  But she had a good go at making her mark on it!

You can see from my appalling attempts at the flowers she requested, I struggled a bit too!

Once complete, we left it to dry and then ironed it to fix the design (cover the designed area with a clean cotton cloth and iron on a very hot setting for 1-2 minutes).  And voila- sorry for the blur, the catwalk queen wouldn't keep still:

The 3D painted one had to be left overnight to dry and then it was washed by hand to set.  Here she is modelling it:

We really enjoyed this activity. The paints cost a couple of pounds each, but we only used a small amount so there is plenty left for more attempts.  They can be purchased from haberdasheries and hardware stores - Wilkinsons and Dunelm Mills stock them too.

Many thanks to Dylon for sending us the paints.  I suspect an artistic person could come up with something really fabulous, but we're happy with our 'new' clothes!


Sponsored post: The products were sent to me free of charge but I have received no financial reward for writing this post.  All views are my own and are honest and accurate.