Designing a Sweatshirt

I have been on the hunt for fashionable, yet decently priced, sweatshirts. For my kind of style, they're normally over priced. And let me tell you, window shopping does not help the situation! Searching through stores just made me want to buy everything in site, which does not help the 'decently priced' aspect of shopping. So, I took to creating my own!

This is where trusty ol' Pinterest comes in! ;) There were so many cute ideas, I really couldn't decide which style I wanted to create first. After looking for what seemed like ages, I chose to create a diamond design with a galaxy theme. There's not much else to explain other than showing you, so on to the goods!

You will need:

A sweatshirt of your size (I purchased mine for $4.60 from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon)

Fabric paint of various shades of pink, blue, purple and white (If you are creating on any other color besides black, you will also need black)

Fluffy paintbrush

Plate

Toothbrush

Piece of cardboard bigger than your design

Your desired design cut out (I used the sticky part of laminating sheets)

Before I began, I prepped my shirt by deciding exactly where I would like the design it go. I chose to print out a design and trace it onto the back of 8 1/2x11 self-adhesive laminating sheets. Once I traced the design onto the sheet, I cut out the parts that I wanted to paint. This part took the longest to complete. It's quite tedious! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this part, but I plan on creating another shirt in the near future!

Once I finished cutting it all out, I took the backing off of the sheet and stuck it exactly where I wanted the design to go. For me, it was in the center of the sweatshirt.

I brought out the plastic plate to put all of the different paints onto it. I used two different shades of blue, a medium purple, a pastel pink, white and black, which I had on hand.

This next part is a little confusing, so I will try and explain it in depth. Starting with black, I grabbed my fluffy paintbrush and lightly dabbed the paint in each section. My version of dabbing includes picking the paintbrush up every time in order to get a very sporadic pattern. I also swirled the paintbrush here and there for the same reason. I began by using the darkest color after black, medium purple. Keeping with the same method, I dabbed, occasionally swirling, the purple into each section. Next came pink. The pink that I had on hand was very loud, so I chose to only put it in a few spots. Good thing galaxies are very sporadic in color! Then came the darker shade of blue. I spread this over the pink a bit more to lessen the brightness. Lastly, with the paintbrush, came the light blue. Again, this was also bright, so I limited my use of blue.

To finish the painting, I grabbed a toothbrush and coated it with white paint. This part seemed a bit difficult to be to achieve the perfect stars, but I think it came out perfectly! After I coated the toothbrush, I used my finger and brushed it across it in order for the paint to splatter here and there for the stars. It was the last step to complete the shirt! In my opinion, I think it came out great!

Of course, I let it dry overnight until it was fully dry. I took out the cardboard and wore it the very next day! I received so many compliments and other people asking for one as well! All in all, I'm very content with how it came out, and will be making more of my own clothing soon!

Have you created your own designs on clothing? Let me know in the comments below!