Embellished Shibori T-shirt DIY

Posted on Aug 29, 2018 By

This DIY should really be called Shibori'ish, but that seemed like overkill. Traditional Shibori is a Japanese resist dying technique typically done by folding, twisting, or bunching cloth and then submerging it into indigo dye. It is absolutely beautiful but can be hard (and super messy) for kids to make on their own. So we put our Textile Spray Paint to the test and came up with a Shibori'ish method of dying that kids can easily handle. Plus, we added a little embellishment with some of our beads to make it bit extra.

Materials:

- white t-shirt (we LOVE our Coloring Page T-Shirt)

- Textile Spray Paint

- rubberbands

- embroidery thread, sewing needle, beads -- all optional, but if you want that extra effect, scoop some from one of our other kits. We used beads from our Metal Mash-Up Craft Kit and thread + needle from our Arts and Crafts Supply Library

Steps:

1. Fold shirt -- set up somewhere that can get messy, like outside! Fold the shirt vertically across into accordion folds. Then fold the shirt horizontally into accordion folds.

2. Secure folds -- place rubber bands tightly around each side of the shirt, creating a grid pattern of rubber bands.

3. Make initial sprays of paint -- spray the shirt completely with the blue spray paint. Then add a layer of black paint. Then another layer of blue. You're trying to mimic the Shibori indigo color by combining our blue and black paints, so just play around with it a bit. Don't use all the spray paint on this step though! Let shirt dry for about 10 minutes.

4. Make second sprays of paint -- remove rubber bands and open shirt to lay flat. Because we aren't submerging it into a bucket of dye like you would in traditional Shibori, you're likely to have a lot of white space in the middle of your shirt. If you like that effect, cool, you're done! If you want to add more color though, make semi-accordion folds in the shirt in whatever direction you like. Then apply additional layers of blue and black spray paint to the tops of those folds.

5. Dry shirt and embellish -- once the shirt is almost completely dry to the touch (we added a lot of color, so it took about an hour), run through your dryer cycle once to set the color. The color will change in the dryer a bit once it fully sets. If you'd like to add a little something extra to the shirt, use the embroidery thread to add beads or sew a design. More is more!