What I learned about t-shirt designing

My GD and I spent the day yesterday designing t-shirts. It was a just for fun project, with no pressure for perfection. What a fun day! In the process I learned alot, as I have never really worked with fabric paints or paint pens, and really have not done alot of photo transfer stuff. Although we only used pre-made transfer designs and transfered those with an iron, even there was a learning process.

What I learned

So here in a nut shell is what I learned. I made sure to write it down in my sketch book so hopefully I won't make the same mistakes.
Fabric paint pens....the number one thing I learned is that the paint will bleed (duh) into the adjacent color if they are both wet. So the lesson here is to (I think) outline the object with the color and let it dry or use color block. With my t-shirt is was okay because my design was a toucan and the effect worked there, but in other designs would be a disaster. I also learned that to get a shadow or feathered effect, you can paint part of the object, let it dry and go back and paint the rest. I only found this out because I had to keep stopping to help my GD.
Fabric Dyes...here we used fabric dye diluted in squirt bottles, scrunching the fabric for a blotched look. While my GD's turned out well, because she used a ton of paint, the other 3 washed out and became a solid color...those t's were wetted before application of the paint. Also, leaving the dyed fabric in a plastic bag for 31/2 hours was not long enough (instruction say 4-6 hrs, but I rushed ahead. What I learned.....Dry fabrics work much better if you want a blotched effect ...wet if you want solid. I also think next time I will use buckets to dye in rather than squirt bottles, using the powder dye instead. I think wet paints would be good for just painting designs but not for an overall color treatment.
Stencil....what I learned is that I need much more practice in this area! and also that you blot, not rub. Help!
Transfers...this is a no brainer...you have to take your time.

Well there is so much more that I wrote in my sketch book...but these are the main lessons I learned. And yes my GD ended up on the computer, but only to find a family picture to transfer to her t-shirt, and make a collage for her new binder. So my photo editing program is now loaded back on the computer for future projects. Oh, and she turned me on to Photo Bucket, I already use Flickr...but in Photo Bucket you can do all kinds of effects, very cool.

I am off today to do some handwork to finish...ha ha...some last details to the circle quilt and tea cozy, and if the sun comes out some gardening. The garden is all ready for planting, just have to take a trip up to Half Moon Bay Nursery to get our veggies.