Saving clothes with fabric paint

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I have found that I often get small stains on clothes that makes them go from "good" to everyday. Because I am an artist who often does fabric painting, it dawned on me that fabric paint might help hide the stain. What I do is mix a small amount of paint (acrylic, or fabric) with water in a spray bottle, hang the shirt (or whatever) in a place where overspray will not matter, and spray away. I try to keep colors compatable, and often use two or three. Splashing with a sloppy brush works will, but makes bigger sploshes. I also will wet the fabric before spraying for more bleeding, which looks nice on some fabrics. Be willing to experiment a little, and have fun||| Jacki

-- Jackie Goss (jgossspecialtees@msn.com.), December 03, 2001

Answers

Great idea Jackie. I have about half a dozen kids t-shirts and turtlenecks I have been tempted to do some tie-dying on, but i do have acrylic paints in the house and no fabric dye... I think I might be having some fun tonight.

-- Terri in NS (terri@tallships.ca), December 03, 2001.

What a great idea!!!! does acrylic paint stay on? I have never seen fabric paint. I have kids that haven't quite figured out where their mouth is yet! sure would save money on clothes.

-- lurkylu (lurkylu@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.

Yes acrylic paint will work, but make sure to thin with water a lot. Actually anything that stains can be used, including berry juices, coffee and tea. Fabric paint is an acrylic paint with fabric medium added to make it more flexable, and it is usually heat set by ironing. I've even painted denim jackets, and they last pretty long. Jacki

-- Jackie Goss (jgossspecialtees@msn.com.), December 03, 2001.

Acrylic paint does work (check out any painter's duds!), but because fabric paints are designed for the task, they take the washing and drying with better-looking results than, say, housepaint or artist's colors. One of the best investments I made, fabric-paint-wise, was a few bucks spent on a giant book of iron-on designs. Everything under the sun, including plain stuff, holiday stuff, lettering, and even high-end "spiffy" motifs.

On a similar vein, you can also cover spots with: decorative pockets, sewn-on scarfs, sewn-on buttons and jewelry, applique work, ribbon and floss embroidery, crazy quilt-type patches, and stick-on or sew- on sequin appliques (they make stuff that lets you stick them on and them remove them to be stored on wax paper when the garment is washed, or to exchange with another one). You can also alter the garment to eliminate tears and stains by, for example, cutting off the sleves and creating new sleeves from a complementary fabric. These could be either sewn back into the old armscye, or the rough edges of both surfaces hemmed and the sleeves attached with buttons or lacing. Ditto pants into shorts, shortened or altered hems and sleeves, or perhaps a sewn-on a vest over a particularly badly injured blouse. Think way outside the box, and who knows - you may like the new garment better than you liked the old one!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.


The fabric paint sounds like neat idea and one the kids would have fun trying. They would certainly enjoy personalizing their "chore clothes".

I had a brand new blouse once upon a time that I "ruined" by putting a York Peppermint Pattie in the pocket of. The candy melted and left an oily stain on the pocket that would not wash out. I decided if you can't beat 'em join 'em. I took a paper towel lightly dipped in vegetable oil and dabbed it all over the shirt until the oil spot was cammouflaged with other oil spots and the print of the shirt. Eventually, all the oil washed out.

The ideas about replacing sleeves, etc... would be good only if the shirt were a real favorite for some reason, perhaps due to the durability of fabric or something. Nice, inexpensive clothes can be found at thrift/second hand stores that make certain mending jobs non- cost/time effective.

I found some VERY nice dresses for $2 each at Goodwill last week. One is new looking denimn with tea cups embroidered on the bodice, another is rayon/cotton very pretty Easter dress potential, and the third is a pretty periwinkle blue linen print. Then I found some more at another store, one of them a Woolrich denim jumper for $5.

At prices like that for "new" clothing it doesn't pay to take time to mend some things.

You can also find nice buttons at thrift stores. Sometimes an article of clothing will have buttons that would cost quite a bit to buy new but the clothing is really cheap. Buy the piece for the buttons. I've seen pretty mother-of-pearl buttons that I know would cost a good bit at the fabric store.

But I digress...nice idea with the fabric paint

-- LBD (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.



My local thrift store occasionally have $1 clothing days. Every item of clothing is $1. Last time I took my mom, 2 nieces (14 & 5 yrs) and my sister. We all got TONS of clothes for less than a good sweater would cost at most stores. I got several sweaters, including a brand new Pierre Cardon red chanile (sp?) one, beautiful for christmas! My sister got a neat old coat, lined with fleece and it good con'd. I almost never buy at reg stores anymore, even most of ouf furniture came from this store!

-- ellie (eagle-quest@juno.com), December 04, 2001.

Great idea! When the kids were younger I would fix their clothes like this also. Jeans that were to short would become skirts with ruffles of material at the bottom and a shirt to match. I would buy bright colorful big patterns, dinosaurs or lobsters or flowers or....iron on Wonder Under (a double sided sticky fabric) then cut out the pattern, take of the paper and iron it on over the stain on their shirts. Some slick or puffy paint over the corners and perhaps highlighting, a new shirt is born. Always wash your creations inside out! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.

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