turning boring shirts into superawesome custom shirts!

i’ve been having some fun with printing! two of my brothers had birthdays in the last month, so i got them plain thifted shirts onto which i custom printed some of their favorite things… first, for ben, the dj basketball player (birthday+graduation so 2 shirts):

the scratching and the bball are freezer paper stencils made by me, the headphones is a stencil i bought super cheap a long time ago. (see basketball closeup here for a better angle.)

and then for paul, the folk musician, i thought about making a bob dylan stencil, but decided it would be a bit too challenging because of his hair… so i carved a banjo block print and did this:

i had so much fun with the block printed shirt that yesterday i made a couple for myself!

if you want to try out some printing now, i did a threadbanger roundup awhile back with links to tutorials on every different fabric printing technique i know of. and a couple weeks ago i picked up lotta jansdotter’s new printing book – so inspiring! i recommend checking that out for ideas with tons of different methods, from potato printing to screens.

and, if you are in the portland area, i will be teaching a class on freezer paper stenciling at the 100th monkey studio! on august 2nd i’ll be teaching how to make a stencil, and print both the positive and negative images. i think it’ll be a great class for teenagers who might be new to crafty things, so if you know anyone who might be interested be sure to let them know!