Personalise a t-shirt with paint
To personalise a T-shirt with paint, you can do it simply at home by following our tips in this article. Whether you want to write your first name or add a touch of fantasy.
How to personalise with paint
Using textile paint
To paint a T-shirt, you need to use a paint specially designed for textiles and fabric, which is resistant to washing and remains flexible. In this article, we'll be using textile primer and standard paint to customise a T-shirt. Of course, our advice also applies to other items of clothing, such as sweatshirts or trousers.
The accessories you need
To personalise a T-shirt, you'll need a flat brush, a palette and a stencil with the design of your choice or your logo, which you can create using our tool. Finally, you'll need masking tape if you're worried about going over the sides.
How can I get a uniform finish?
Use a rigid support
Before painting, lay your T-shirt flat and taut on a rigid surface. This can be a wooden board or cardboard, which you can secure with clothes pegs. This support will prevent paint from running through your t-shirts or clothes.
Using a stencil
To apply a stencil, we recommend you use a transfer film, which will allow you to recover your designs easily. You can also use rigid card to improve adhesion.
Once you've stuck it on properly, we recommend using a hair dryer to ensure that the stencil moulds perfectly to the shape of the T-shirt.
Avoid burrs
To avoid smudges on your T-shirt, always apply 1 to 2 coats of textile primer, depending on the flexibility and thickness of the textile. The thinner or softer the garment, the more coats you'll need. If it's thick, a single coat may be enough. And if in doubt, better too much than too little.
Make sure your brush isn't too full of paint, and never put the first drop of paint in the stencil. You can, for example, spread the paint on your palette or on the tape around the stencil.
How do you paint your T-shirt ?
It's time to move on to the painting part, to personalise your T-shirt as you wish. In our case, we're going to fill in a stencil to help us reproduce the chosen motif.
Applying paint
To get an even result when you apply the paint to your T-shirt, you generally need to apply 2 to 3 thin coats. Try to work from the outside in as much as possible, and again, make sure the brush isn't too full of paint!
You can also use a sponge to apply the paint even more delicately.
Remove the stencil
Once your T-shirt is personalised with the colours of your choice, and the paint is completely dry, you can remove the stencil.
Start by removing the tape, then the stencil, taking it slowly. You may sometimes see a demarcation, very often due to the self-adhesive part of the stencil. Don't panic, it will disappear completely after washing.
Fixing paint on a T-shirt
Is it necessary to heat paint on textiles?
You don't need to heat the paint with an iron or other appliance to apply it to textiles and fabrics, and therefore to customise a T-shirt. SneakArts standard paint has the advantage of bonding directly to the textile fibres.
What's more, you can dilute the paint with water and still achieve excellent colour retention on your T-shirts.
Should your creation be varnished?
It is not necessary to varnish textiles as the paint is water and wash resistant without the need for additional protection.
However, if you want to change the final result to give it a glossy or cardboard effect, for example, you can apply one or more coats of gloss varnish.
Why personalise a t-shirt ?
Personalising your t-shirt makes you unique, adds a personal touch and gives you the satisfaction of having made it yourself!
It's also an opportunity for you to celebrate an event: a birthday, a stag or hen party, and much more besides.
Finally, it can be a great way to give new life to your old, faded t-shirts. It's up to you to create something you like now.
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