DIY T-shirt Screen Printing

My nephew is turning 3 this weekend and I decided to make him screen printed T-shirts.

To be honest, I was going to make freezer paper stencils, but I ran out of freezer paper. And I was not in the mood to make a trip to the store for freezer paper. I remembered reading in a magazine somewhere about DIY screen printing with sheer nylon chiffon or more well known as sheer white curtain fabric and decided to give it a try. I had some fabric on hand from a Halloween ghost project, the embroidery hoop, Mod Podge and some acrylic paint.

DIY SCREEN PRINTING TUTORIAL

As I said, you need sheer white curtain fabric, embroidery or quilting hoop, Mod Podge, paint brush, acrylic or fabric paint, an old credit card or bowl scraper spatula , and a printed image.

Fit fabric into hoop tightly.

Put image underneath and trace around with a pencil.

Then paint Mod Podge on the areas you DO NOT WANT PAINT ON!

I started with a simple image and then moved on to a more detailed one later. Just to be safe. Once the Mod Podge dried, I placed the hoop on the T-shirt.

Put small amounts of paint on the Mod Podge covered part.

Then using the bowl scraper, I spread the paint as evenly as possible. Lifted off the screen and let the paint dry.

Obviously I need to work on spreading the paint a bit more even. Note: rinse the screen as soon as you are done, let it dry and you can use it again!

I added one more airplane and then cut out a few clouds from white knit fabric and stitched it on.