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I wanted to produce some original t-shirts for the last summer. I bought special printing paper and was choosing images, however I didn’t manage to realize the conception. There were many things that I considered as more important and then the summer passed. This year I was kicked towards the original t-shirts by an accidental purchasing of stencils made according to Banksy graffiti ideas in Camden Town, London. So the first series of tees were decorated not by ironed stickers but by sprayed pictures.

Before starting the spraying, I browsed instructables. Accoring to the examples, two-colored pictures looked much better than the singe-colored ones, so I purchased a couple of cans of paint for textile (black and white). Although they say you could use any acrylic sprayed or rolled paint.

Two-colored pictures need two stencils. The manufactured one was only for the dark color, so I had to make the one for the white color by myself.

If you decide to do something similar in the run of summer, then you can follow my experience. The first trial wasn’t successful⁽¹⁾, but I learned from my own mistakes, so I extend the instructions with my own tips.

• The stencil should be cut out of plastic, but not paper (some harder folder for documents might perfectly fit). If you spray more extensively using the paper stencil, the paint gets through the sides of the stencil.
• The t-shirt should be washed at least once before painting, because cotton shrink after the first washing. The sprayed area should be folded onto a piece of cardboard and stretched by the clips.
• Cover everything what shouldn’t be painted by an accident. Small drops will be flying in the air and looking for open areas. Use glue stick to paste the protruded parts of the stencil to the t-shirt.
• Dont overspray. You will find out how much paint to spray from your practice, but whatever amount you use on textile, white will never be as white as black is black. Spray from the distance of 3-7 cm.
• Use the stencil of the second color when the first color gets dry.
• Avoid overlaying of colors. If you spray black on top of white, you will get gray.
• Fix the paint by ironing the inner side. Separate the picture from the back side of the t-shirt and from the direct contact with the iron by a few sheets of paper.
• Wash the t-shirt to clean them from the temporarily used glue stick.

So good luck in the production! If you have some interesting stencils, you can send them to me.

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⁽¹⁾ But it will be OK for the underground parties.