Expressionist Tee Tutorial

Remember when you were a kid and you doodled a bunch of swirly lines and then colored the spaces in?  That was the inspiration for this tee.

I made the tee from scratch, because I wanted an a-line shape to pair with leggings.  Of course what did she want to wear with it?  A fluffy skirt.  The kid knows nothing about proportions ;-)

Want to make your own expressionist tee?  Here we go!  

You will need:

a plain tee

a sharpie (preferably the ones made for marking fabric)

fabric paint

small paint brush

1 large circular sponge brush and one small circular sponge brush

Put a piece of cardboard (or in my case, a post office mailer) inside the shirt.

Next, sketch a swirly doo.  You can use a regular sharpie, but it may end up dragging across the fabric and causing some sloppy lines.  If I had it to do over I would use one of these.  

Anyway, you can fix the sloppy lines when you fill in the spaces with paint.  Use a small brush.  If the paint is too thick add a couple of drops of water.

At that point I thought I was done, but as you see I had a helper.  And my helper thought the sleeve needed some paint on it.  Thus, the polkadot sleeves were born, and I have to admit I kinda love them.

I sponged the lighter colored polkadots with the larger brush and the darker colored ones with the small brush.

When you're done, don't forget to sign your artwork!  This would be a great project for children to help with, how fun would it be for them to wear their own art!

Also, I have started putting my tags on the OUTSIDE of all of the clothing I make.  That way my kids are walking advertisements.  I highly recommend it!   It's started a lot of conversations :-)

 Did you doodle as a child?