T-shirt Refashion: National Geographic

Michael's (and other craft stores) sell cheap, plain t-shirts. They go on sale regularly; usually priced at $4/each, I've seen them go as low as $1/each.

I didn't have to wait very long before they were BOGO 50% off. I picked up 4.

T-Shirt #1:

Inspiration

I picked up some fabric paint medium that allows you to convert any acrylic paint into fabric paint. I don't think this is a necessary item, but I was interested in trying it out.

Remember to put a piece of waxy paper inside the t-shirt before painting. You can cheat and use regular paper, but be sure to remove it and hang up your shirt (to keep the front and back from sticking together) before the paint dries. With wax paper, you don't have to worry about anything; even after the paint dries, it should just peel right off.

I used masking tape and a sponge to get the crisp yellow rectangle. I also used it to mask around where the lettering belonged (to keep my letters straight) but painted the words free-hand. You could also sketch out the letters with some fabric marking chalk.

These t-shirts were unisex. Women's styles were available but not in all the colors I wanted. For each shirt, I hemmed the bottom and brought in the sides around my waist in order to make them more feminine.

For this shirt, I hemmed the bottom so that the back was longer than the front (just because I've been seeing this tend recently and wanted to test it out).

The Inspiration shirt doesn't have sleeves, but I decided to keep mine. This is personal preference. I cuffed my sleeves and stitched them in place by sewing in the upper and lower seams (this is called "stitching in the ditch").

So, what do you think? Not bad for a $4 t-shirt.

Total Cost of Materials:
T-Shirt = $4 (or $2, BOGO50%)
Fabric Paint Medium = $1.25 (with 50% off coupon)
Paint Brush / Sponge Brush = already had
Masking Tape = already had
Thread = already had

Total Cost = $3.25-$5.25