T-shirt decorating for kids
A fun indoor project for the kids now that the weather is getting chillier and rainier is t-shirt decorating. Kids love this fun, artistic activity (being allowed to deliberately paint on clothes is a great novelty!) and they can wear their creations when they’re done.
It’s easy to find a selection of plain t-shirts cheaply from a high street shop (or they can be ordered online as well). It’s also a great way to update old clothes – this is a great way to revamp an old t-shirt that’s collected a stain or two.
You could even have a t-shirt art birthday party – order a stack of t-shirts and turn the kids loose on them with paintbrushes, glitter and glue.
Materials:
- Fabric paint: Most craft stores stock fabric paint; you can get regular colours paints and glitter or even glow-in-the-dark varieties as well.
- Craft glue: ensure this is strong fabric glue that will withstand machine washing.
- Decorations: here you can really go nuts – buttons, ribbon, pom-poms and applique are some suggestions. It might be a fun challenge to find things you already have around the house.
- Newspaper to protect surfaces.
Directions
- Make sure the t-shirt is pre-washed, fully dry and ironed for a smooth working surface.
- Place newspaper inside the shirt so that glue and paint doesn’t seep through the fabric, and spread more around to protect your tables and flooring.
- Your child might want to do a dry run – setting any decorations in place or pencilling in the design, or they may wish to go freestyle.
- Leave overnight to ensure all paint and glue is completely dried, and hand-sew anything that has been glued on for extra hold.
- Hold a fashion parade!
Encouraging creative expression is beneficial for kids. Ordinarily they are “right” or “wrong” in traditional school subjects like maths, so having a creative environment where nothing is wrong is a valuable space to grow and make work that they are proud of without having it graded. It’s also a chance to get a bit messy and enjoy being a kid.
What is your kids’ favourite art activity?
Vivienne Egan writes for Baker Ross who have lots of great Halloween crafts right now
~This has been a paid post. Content was written for this blog. I did review and approve it for relevancy for this site.
About Jessica
I have a memory of doing this when I was a child. I did the same thing with my age old tshirt and it really attained a better look after such an experiment. But no doubt, you explained it in a much better way. It was even helpful in recognizing my mistakes when I painted my tshirt
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