Easy Screen Printing Technique Revealed!
Okay I'm cheating a bit since I had this on my old website, so I'm recycling it. I loved this project so much I wanted to share it.
Materials:
- pre washed t-shirt
- embroidery hoop
- sheer fabric material, nylons, or curtain material
- Non Water soluble Glue (I used Mod Podge)
- screen printing ink or acrylic paint + fabric medium
- paint brush with stiff bristles
- a design, either drawn freehand or printed from a computer
Directions:
1. Choose your image to screen print. This can be done either on the computer or as a drawing. The image should be high contrast and not too detailed. Pretty much any design that you can paint, you can make. Make sure your design fits inside the embroidery hoop. It should be small enough to leave at least one inch margin from the edge of the hoop.2. Stretch the sheer fabric into the embroidery hoop and tighten it. It should be as tight as you can make it without wrecking the hoop or tearing the fabric. The embroidery hoop can then be tightened to hold the screen in place. 3. Place the hoop on top of your image sheer curtain side down. Using a pencil or pen, trace the image onto the screen. The outline should be clearly marked so that you know where to fill in with glue. Accuracy becomes more important if you are adding more than one color on your shirt.
4. Mod Podge all the areas where you don’t want the color to go through. I used an old paint brush. Flip it over so that the side with the sheer curtain is up. At this point you have the option to use tape or other adhesive materials to cover / clog the larger areas, but if you want to make more than one shirt with the same screen, it needs to be washable.
5. Position the embroidery hoop and screen against the shirt where you want the image to be printed. Once you have it placed in the correct spot, apply the ink by dabbing the brush up and down in a stippling motion. I put a piece of heavy paper inside the shirt to prevent the paint from going onto the back side.6. Remove the screen and give the shirt time to dry. Wash the screen so it can be used again. After it's dry, iron the image on the t-shirt before washing to set the ink.
