Polish traditional folk ornaments are beautiful, eye-catching and full of colours. I thought – why the heck not wear it?! I had a quick look through different patterns and there was the one I wanted to see on my T-shirt. I decided to paint it…how hard can it be, right?

Only recently I have started my adventure with painting on fabric, I found it quite fun, enjoyable, fulfilling and creative, however let’s face it – that is painting we are talking about, it takes time, it demands patience, accuracy, attention to detail and a bit of a skill…NAH! how hard can it be? Let’s do it!

How to start:

First of all I print the pattern (2), I’ve got a black&white printer so the colorful version of the pattern on the mobile is quite useful (2). You will also need:

(3) – a piece of cardboard to have a flat surface to paint on and not allow the paint to soak through;

(4) – a pencil/fabric marker – with a soft lead is preferred, if you are brave enough you can already start sketching with the fabric marker, but personally I recommend a pencil in case of any corrections or adjustments.

(1) – a T-shirt obviously

The next step is to put your printed pattern under the front of the T-shirt and overdraw it using the pencil as much as you can, if the fabric is thick and you cannot see much through it, try at least to mark the edges of the pattern. 

That is the end of the hard part, from now on starts the easy&fun part. To paint the pattern I’m using acrylic paint and thin brushes as the parts of the pattern are quite small and detailed.

In this case I start painting with one chosen colour, then I move on to the next one and another one. 

Painting in red/pink:

Moving on to the shades of green:

…adding even more colours:

Nearly finished …

 … and after only 4 hours here it is! My own folklore T-shirt! 🙂 How do you like it?

The only thing left is to wait for the paint to dry, then you turn the T-shirt inside out and iron the pattern to prevent it from washing out and it’s ready to be worn 🙂