Yesterday morning my oldest daughter started tearing through the house ranting about how she didn’t have anything to wear to our town’s 4th of July parade. She wanted me to take her shopping to buy a shirt for her to wear but I guess she forgot who she was talking to? In our house you don’t buy a shirt! If you need a patriotic t-shirt than you make a flag t-shirt using what you have on hand.
In this case all the red and blue paint I had happened to be spray paint so we made DIY T-shirts using spray paint. They were extremely easy t-shirts to make and you could have made a lot of them using one can of spray paint. We made three and still had spray paint left over from cans that were already half empty when we started.
Sometimes I get an idea in my head full of loose nuts and bolts and it seems really good but it doesn’t always work out.
Other times I just wing it with barely any ideas of where it’s going to wind up.
This is one of those times that I was just winging it and you know what? I love how these t-shirts turned out! Without a doubt they look like something fresh off the store shelves.
Now my daughter doesn’t have to fret anymore. She’ll be in style at the parade, sounded by her friends and catching so much candy that I already made the dentist appointment.
To start you need to gather white t-shirts, painters tape, red spray paint, blue spray paint and some old newspapers.
Slide newspaper up inside the shirt to prevent the paint from running through the shirt onto the other side.
Place the shirt on a piece of paper or more old newspapers to protect the surface you’ll be painting it on.
Tear off four pieces off painters tape that is wider than the shirt.
Place the first piece just under the bottom of the sleeves. Space the remaining pieces out so that they’ll be even distances apart.
I cut hearts out of painters tape to take the place of the stars. If you have little boys you can do dots or star stickers would probably work just as well.
The front of you t-shirt should look similar to this.
Repeat the process on the back of the shirt. I did not place hearts on the back of the shirt – I just did stripes with a blue top.
Turn it back over to the front of the shirt.
Lay the extra newspaper on the top of the shirt, blocking the area that you want to paint blue.
Now spray the bottom part with the red spray paint. You do not want to saturate the shirt with paint because it will harden. Do light sprays until you like the color but make sure it doesn’t get too wet.
Once the bottom is painted, move the newspaper down to cover the red area of the shirt and paint the top of it blue.
Watch carefully to make sure that the sleeves are not crumpled and leaving white creases. You also have to gently lift the top of the shirt to spray the top of the shoulder area.
Let your shirt sit for 5 minutes and then flip it over and repeat the same process on the back.
Let the back dry to the touch and then peel off the tape on both sides.
When you’re done your shirt should look something like this.
Heat set the paint for 20 minutes in the dryer.
It’s cute right?
My girls all love these shirts.
Since it is spray paint the texture of the outside of the shirt is not as soft as a usual t-shirt. The inside is still soft and moveable.
If you want to make the outside softer you can wash it in the washing machine.
You can also check out this DIY Flag Shirt Using To-Go Boxes!
seen on pinterest. wondering if you’ve washed this? if so did it bleed or fade?
I have washed them and they look exactly the same. Just remember to heat set them before washing them.