This is a perfect outdoor craft activity. Painting outside means less mess inside, plus it gives you plenty of room to spread out your materials. If you have doilies left over from other projects like we did, this is a good opportunity to reuse them.
Difficulty level: Beginner
Time required: 15 minutes, plus 2 hours of drying time
Age range: 8 and up, with adult supervision recommended for younger children
Things you’ll need:
Covering such as cardboard or plastic to protect work surface
Piece of cardboard to fit inside shirt
Three 5″ doilies
Fabric Spray Paint
Youth medium t-shirt
Things to do:
1. Place the t-shirt on a covered work surface, then insert cardboard inside the shirt.
2. Place doilies around the neckline of the t-shirt, centering one in the middle and adding one on both sides.
3. Holding the fabric spray about 6-8″ away from the fabric, spray across the doily collar, beginning just off the edge of the project to prevent blobbing. Make your way over the doilies as you spray, spraying in circular motions. Spray all the way across the collar, then end by spraying just off the opposite edge of the project.
Don’t worry about being perfect! There might be some blobs of paint, but this is meant to look a little messy.
4. Allow the paint to dry for 1 hour, leaving the doilies in place so that no paint smears or drips.
5. Remove the doilies from the shirt.
6. Flip the shirt over to the back, adjusting the cardboard inside if necessary.
7. Line the doilies up on the back of the shirt, just like you did for the front. Your doilies will probably be covered in fabric paint, but as long as they are dry, that’s ok.
8. Once again, spray the doilies using the same circular motion, starting and ending just off the edges of the collar.
Tip: After your last spray, rinse the spray nozzle under warm water to clear the nozzle before the next use. This will prevent clogging.
9. Allow the paint to dry for 1 hour, then remove the doilies from the shirt.
Tip: While the fabric paint is washable, wait 72 hours before washing the shirt.