anyone ever stencil t-shirts?

[mr.loverman]

anyone ever make their own stencils then use spray on fabric paint to make a t-shirt? seems like it could be a cheap and fun alternative to silk screening. does it come out looking alright?

 

[xchen]

Used to try and do it. It's a bit pricey to get started with all the paints and supplies and never really turned out working for me.

 

[Ludeykrus]

I've toyed with the idea in my mind, and figured that using "rough" images/stencils would work best; almost graffiti-esque.

I've seen it done on cheaper shirt with cheaper supplies and it came out halfway decent. I believe with better shirts and more care taken in consideration of the design and materials used, you could make a very decent everyday shirt.

 

[mr.loverman]

how is it pricey? the paints are like $6 a can. b

 

[xchen]

Yeah, the paints I used were very stiff on the shirt, and cutting out more detailed stencils is sort of complicated. I did get pretty good at converting images to stencils in photoshop though.

 

[robbie]

I've not used stencils, but I've made striped shirts for friends with spray paint.

If you want consistent color that won't fade try using fabric markers. Fabric paint will fade after about the 2nd wash. It doesn't look horrible, but the color will differ from when you painted them. The nice thing about fabric paint is that its paint, and someone with talent could use it and have museum quality work to wear around town.

 

[folby]

I've done it in the past with mixed results. One of the things to watch out for is that the stencil can lift off of the shirt and you'll get 'underspray', or areas where the paint runs under the stencil giving you a blurry look. If you can cut your stencils out of something like adhesive vynil it helps. If you can't, holding the paint can far enough away from the shirt that the force from the spray isn't lifting the shirt. You should also watch out for bleed through, any heavy application of paint and you may end up with a reverse image on the back of your shirt.

You might just consider finding a local artist and getting them to do something. They might work with an airbrush, which will yield better results.

 

[Go Surface]

I've stenciled and hand painted t-shirts/sweaters. Results may vary.

 

[BrettChaotix]

I've used the stencil method a few times and it's OK I guess but you have to be careful not to "overspray" by holding the can to close or "underspray" by holding it too far away.

I guess I'm biased because I've done so much silk screening and have always preferred that method but it seems more practical in both time and money, if you are dead-set on stencil designs you can alway just do them on silk screen using the blocking method anyway.

 

[limping_decorum]

check here.

I think they have tutorials on making them and various ways on putting them on shirts