Fabric Painting on Stretch Materials

I haven't used the puffy style only the basic Tulip brand fabric paints as well as a type of fabric paint that resembled colored Elmer's glue. Both left the fabric baggy but only a little. Have you considered turning the fabric paint into a dye?
Is it possible to make a fabric dye out of acrylic paint? - Yahoo! Answers
For detail work you might be able to make your own "sharpie" out of the new dye and an empty writing tip fabric paint bottle.
Liquitex makes a fabric medium for acrylic paint that it says does not need to be heat set. Although you can just to be on the safe side. It's available at local art stores. I picked mine up at Michael's.
 
I know this is an older thread, but in my own searching I ran across this conversation about stretchable textile paints, dyes, inks and resists...so I thought I would lend a few words of experience for those that find this thread like I did.
I do alot of costuming for our company. Working with fibers that resist dying is a challenge point for everyone. But I found a fabulous solution down the road that works like a dream. Dye-na-flo by Jaquard is a flowable acrylic based paint that binds to the fibers of all material, no matter if it is cotton, polyester, nylon, rayon, silk, you name it! It is heat set and flows like a dye. Meaning, it is transparent. I have dyed impossible fabrics with it. You can spray it on, set it in the sun, dry it and heat set it in the dryer or iron. It works on spandex as well.

For the best stretchy 3d paint, jacquard makes a 3d textile paint that stretches with the fabric. For a non 3d, the Jaquard Opaque and Lumiere works amazing. You can find them at www.dharmatrading.com

OK, so enough said on that note. You can prevent a line or certain area from dying or painting..if you will, with resists. Wax based works great, the water based needs a thickener, fyi, that one tends to spread out a little more than you might like.
You can also use elmers glue diluted..and wash it out.
You can also do the sun setting technique. Dharma has a tutorial on how to use the sun and an object to block the dye from setting creating a resist type effect with the dye-na-flo.

I hope this helps. If you have more questions, Dharma is very versed in helping with these sort of questions, just give them a call and tell them what you are creating. They will help with all of that info and direct you to the right product for the job.
 
I was also looking for advice on this topic and came across this thread...I'll add my own experiment in case someone does the same, although I'm sure the poster has long worked out the best way!

So I wanted to paint a swimming costume, which was 80% nylon. Because it was for a fancy dress, I actually chose gold body paint as opposed to fabric paint, because I find it dries with more flexibility than other paints on fabric, and I didn't have the time/money to experiment too much.

This is what I found worked best, after some trial and error:

- I stretched out sections of the costume over a board and clipped it in place (DON'T overstretch it, nor let it dry too out of shape, but you do want it stretched enough that as you're painting it's not creasing on itself and giving uneven lines. I started by painting it while I was wearing it, but it's too difficult to get an even layer).

- Using a sponge, applied the first layer on by essentially "buffing" it in, in small gentle circles using not too much paint at a time. More force used around seams to make sure it was evenly applied. If I pressed too hard, lines would appear where the fabric had creased and I'd painted over- buffing this out worked best as well.

- I then ran the sponge down along the entire piece I'd painted, following the fabric, to smooth the paint overall.

- Let it dry.

- For the second coat, I used more water in the sponge (body paint is water soluble) and applied it this time DABBING, then smoothing over gently. Because I used gold metallic paint, the shimmer came up much stronger on the second coat, but it also came on quite thickly, making it easier to make mistakes and be more uneven.

- To touch up lines or blemishes, I ran a clean, damn sponge along the areas where the paint was too thick to even it out.

Voila! The costume looks fantastic, but I can't guarantee as to longevity- my party is tomorrow so I'm thinking about going for fixitive or some kind of sealing spray, because I think any setting liquid will make the fabric stiff, but also any liquid will end up all over me! Luckily, I'm painting myself with the same gold paint!

Hope this helps, good luck!
 
Greetings all,
Thank you for all this fantastic information. Found this post and it's been the most helpful one yet. I will be doing some experiments of my own and will post the results if they work to add to the knowledge base.

Ned
 
This thread is more than 4 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top