Want another fun, easy way to dress up a basic tee? Look no further than this week's tutorial! Use your favorite city's skyline, plus some dye, to make an ordinary tee spectacular!
You'll need a black fabric marker, some dye, an old paintbrush, and fabric (or a pre-made tee).
I'm starting from scratch with this project, mostly because it's easier to embellish a flat piece of fabric than a finished garment. (It's also a lot easier to start over if you make a mistake.) And, I really wanted an excuse to make up the Liberty Jane baseball tee...
First, I cut out the front of my tee. Then, I used chalk to mark off the bottom of my skyline, making sure to leave some room for the hem later on. I marked the approximate top of the skyline with a pin.
I found a picture of the Seattle skyline on the internet, and started drawing it on the tee. It's a good idea to practice first on a piece of scrap fabric!
If you don't feel like freehanding, you can also lay your fabric over your inspiration skyline, and trace. Tape both the image, and the tee front, to a window, to give yourself a little helpful backlight.
When you are happy with your skyline, protect your tee front with a press cloth, and iron it to heat-set the ink. (Your fabric pen probably came with directions about how to do this, but 30 seconds at a med-high heat is usually a good bet.)
Next: the ombre wash!
I got my tee front thoroughly wet, then daubed on very concentrated dye with my paintbrush, and let it sit for a while. It looks really dark and intense in this photo, but a lot of it rinsed out, giving a very delicate look instead. How dark a color you get, depends on the fabric you use, how concentrated your dye is, and how long you let it sit.
In any case, be sure to give it a gentle wash in detergent, to get out any remaining dye molecules, before drying and heat-setting it again.
Finally, all that's left is to sew your beautiful new shirt front to the other pieces of the tee.
Thanks for following along, and have fun with this!
For Pixie Faire,
Melinda
169 Comments
My favorite city is Denver, because it isn’t too far away, the Rockies play there, and there is also an AG store and an awesome zoo. :D
My favorite city is St. Louis, MO. The skyline with the Gateway Arch symbolizing the starting point for the Western Movement is beautiful. It looks great in all colors, but I can see a sunset color used with it to symbolize the westward moving wagons!
My favorite city to visit is Charleston, SC. Not only is it a beautiful city on the water but there is so much southern history there. We love Seattle too and think the skyline you did on the shirt is great. Both my husband and I grew up near there, our first child was born there before we moved to the South. Wasn’t our choice at the time but we love it here now.
Really cool idea and Charleston SC has a skyline that will look great. What color to use could be a hard decision as we have a lot of collages here. Since I am pulling for the Grandson to go to the Citadel I guess I will use blue… Go Bull Dogs.
My favorite city is St. Louis, Mo. Our youngest daughter lives there and they have so many things you can do with your children and grandchildren.