So here is what I did. I bought a very cheap (but organic, oh yes, a girl still gotta have some principles!) t-shirt I liked from H&M for approx a fiver. I already had the paint left over form my last attempt and so the project was definitely a winner in the budget area. While Stan napped I started the main bit of the design. I am such a control freak there was no way I was going to let him totally freestyle. I didn't plan it out, which maybe was a mistake but I had a rough idea in my head of what it might look like, and hey I just rolled with it.
I washed and ironed the t-shirt to get any residue of the manufacturing process off it and to make sure it wasn't going to shrink. I cut an old piece of cardboard the shape of the t-shirt and popped it inside so any paint wouldn't seep through onto the back. Then I painted on eyes and legs of the monster. I then waited for these to dry and then ironed them to 'set' them. I didn't want Stan to paint over the eyes so I cut out masking tape to protect them as well as a simple template for him to go crazy within. (I used newsprint, but any paper would do the trick.) Then I let him loose. Well, in the sense he's a control freak like his mother, so loose isn't that loose at all. In fact it was joyful controlled jabbing of paint brush in the selected area. That's my boy!
He did pretty well filling in the shape. I helped out on a few bits to tidy up any missed bits at the end, but really he did most of it. I waited for the paint to fully dry, which did take an hour or so and then ironed again over newsprint to set the paint. The good thing is if you were to get any paint elsewhere you just don't iron that bit and it should come out in the wash. I peeled off the eyes and template and was fairly happy with the result except I thought he looked odd without any facial features, or arms. Hmmmm, maybe planning my design would have been better! I decided to add some arms, and a nose in the green paint I already had and felt much better about it. In hindsight now I think I would have cut out a template in the masking tape for a simple nose and mouth, I reckon that would be great. The simple strong black and white works well for me, It would be easy to do lots of these and just use different coloured t-shirts, or baby bodies etc.
Oh well....
UPDATE: a chance to win one of five copies of 'The Girl with the Bird's Nest Hair' here.....go on, enter! You never know your luck!
