July 3 / 2K26

I made my first custom shirt! Pretty time consuming process, since half the process is literally waiting for paint to dry. Here's my shirt after I upload my pic onto here later.

The three pieced star of attention.

Now I could be lazy and get that 'iron on paper' to apply to my blank shirt, but I wanted something a bit more breathable than that. Having a big decal means having a big surface area for sweat to pool up, and I like big decals on shirts.

Since I used fabric paint in a spray can, I had to dress up in painters clothes and wear a mask to prevent the paint fumes from scrombling my brain. Open air and a fan is a must to prevent light headedness. Do it on a tarp, or on wax paper, or other surfaces where you're okay with staining them with accidental sprays. Colored grass is not natural and ruining the water table for a shirt is not a good exchange. Also stuff the inside of your custom shirt with paper or some other product to prevent any paint from sponging to the other side of the shirt.

I prepped my station and already had a stencil made from an unused posterboard that I had lying around. I printed out my star, because it's likely the most abstract thing that I could get away with (since it's had being epic in a world of fail), and used a boxcutter to make my pieces.

I put like about 3 coats per each color, making sure each one had sufficient time to dry before I put another one on. That wait time's gonna stack, so don't plan on making a shirt if you have a tight time schedule. Haven't washed it yet but I hope that it doesn't fade the color too badly. The painters tape that I applied on really did a good job, like not a single drop managed to get under the tape. Not even remotely in the qualifiers for looking like Van Halen, but you can't blame me for trying on my first shirt.

I came out of the project pretty fufilled, even if it'll take some time before I get to wear it, but making my own shirt by hand was pretty cool. I would've adjusted the position since I got some paint on the collar, and maybe made a better stencil out of either cardstock or some clever painters tape.