Without a doubt one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to paint fabric is by making and using stencils. I have used stencils in my own business for many years and have painted literally thousands of clothing items on a shoestring budget. Some of the advantages of using stencils as compared with say, silkscreen is that you can develop and modify your designs very quickly and with very little expense aside from your time and a little Mylar stencil film.
When you combine stenciling with a little basic airbrushing you can transform a basic silhouette into an amazing piece of fabric art. Over the years I developed my own style of painting and design choice. Painting onto black fabric had more than its share of challenges. Customers were reluctant to consider any garment, which was less than perfect, and designs had to be painted in a consistent manner in order to be profitable. On top of this any mistakes I made would cost me the price of the fabric, which meant losing around $15 every time I splattered paint on an otherwise perfect design.
Choosing the right paints for your projects is important especially when painted black or dark fabrics.If the fabric had a synthetic content, additives would be added to the paint to make sure they heat set properly.
Once you get over the obstacles in your own fabric-painting niche, you may find that even complex designs can be completed in a very short amount of time. The bull-ant design on the left was one of my most time consuming designs.
I painted them onto T-shirts, tops and women’s stretch leggings for many years. There are 4 overlays in this pattern. Would you believe that the whole design, 6 repeat images took less than one and a half hours to complete? Not bad considering I sold the bull-ant tights for $125.00. Don’t get me wrong, this is no way to get rich quick, but it did make me a living for over 12 years. My designs gradually evolved over time. Some worked and sold better than others. Some were miserable failures.
The idea is to get the design right as cost effectively as possible and only then start to consider moving over to silk screen. At this point, when you know that there is demand for a design, moving over to silk screens will allow you to be more efficient and more cost effective.
In part 2 of this series of articles on fabric painting with stencils, I will go into more detail into some of the techniques I used to help make my fabric painting business more profitable, streamlined and the designs more and eye catching and sellable.
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