Fabric Painting and Decoration

Fabric and Textile Dyes		Fabric and Textile Mediums		Fabric and Textile Paints		Fabric Crayons
Silk Painting		Tools and Accessories

This Week's Featured Products in Fabric Painting and Decoration

	Exciter Pack, Lumiere Rich metallic and pearlescent opaque colors for almost any paintable surface. The kit contains 0.5 oz (15 ml) bottles in 9 colors. Colors include Halo Pink Gold, Halo Blue Gold, Halo Violet Gold, Metallic Russet, Metallic Sunset Gold, Metallic Pewter, Pearlescent Turquoise, Pearlescent Emerald, and Pearlescent Magenta.
	Artmate T-Shirt Board This tough and reusable T-shirt form cleans easily with mineral spirits. It's lightweight, and moisture won't affect it. White. Adult sizes small, medium, or large.
	First Quality 50/50 T-Shirts 50% cotton and 50% polyester top-grade white shirts.

Tips for Painting on Fabric
Fabric painting can be very rewarding, as it gives you the chance to create wearable art for your wardrobe and for your home. The tips that follow will enhance your fabric painting experience:

• When possible, choose 100% cotton for painting projects. Select fabric that is tightly woven, and keep in mind that if you are painting on colored fabric or cream or off white colors that your paint will be dulled slightly. You can, nonetheless, obtain decent results with silk and rayon as well. It is always best practice to try a sample of the material prior to using the fabric for fabric painting.
• Tight is always brighter! As mentioned above, select a tightly woven fabric. The reason? Paint will seep through loosely woven fabrics before the item is dry. This will make the colors less intense. Finely woven fabrics are also easier to paint on than those that are woven loosely.
• Always prewash. Prewashing the fabric before applying paint to it will remove any sizing that was added by the manufacturer. Laundering also allows your fabric to shrink (if it is going to shrink anyway). One way to detect whether a fabric needs washing due to sizing is to drop a small drop of water on it. If the water beads up, it needs washing. If it soaks in, it doesn’t have any sizing to contend with. When laundering a garment prior to fabric painting, skip the fabric softener. Iron if needed.
• Don’t forget to insert something between the layers of your garment. A piece of cardboard, some newspaper, or other disposable item will keep the paint from the front from seeping onto the back of the item (and vice versa).