Every morning the world is a white sheet of paper and waits for the children, attracted by its brightness, to come and imbue it with their colors. COLORS FOR FABRIC ?! YES PLEASE!

An excellent idea to undertake a playful-creative activity with your child is to decorate articles in fabric. For the little one it is a new game and one that will give great satisfaction, also increasing his self-esteem. Whether you decorate something for the child himself or for others, in fact, the result will be a lasting product with a recognized concrete value. The little artist will be extremely proud to wear a t-shirt, a hat, a backpack colored or decorated by him; in the same way, he will feel satisfied to be able to offer his mother, father, relatives and friends not only his creation, but a useful object that they can show off.

If, with a nice drawing, a child can get a “good” and that the mother hangs it on the fridge, with a decorated kitchen towel she will see that the grandmother uses her gift every day: not only did she like it, but it is useful and uses it often!

So let’s see together different techniques for decorating the fabric, with the pros and cons of each.

TEMPERA FOR FABRIC

It is used like a normal gouache, spreading it with the brush. In a separate container you can mix more colors to get new shades. It is especially suitable for fabrics such as cotton, jute, mixed and synthetic fibers… but it is better that the base is clear: the colors will be brighter. The tempera dries in 2 hours; afterwards it is recommended to iron inside out, with a hot iron for at least 5 minutes, so as to definitively fix the colors that will resist washing in the washing machine even up to 60 °.

FINGER TEMPERA FOR FABRIC

For the little ones (aged 24 months and up) who are not yet able to hold a brush, the solution is finger paint! To apply it you do not need other tools than the fingers of the child, who can dip his hands directly from the jar and leave pretty footprints on the fabric objects to be decorated! Even when applied in thick layers, it dries without cracking. It does not require hot fixing, but should be left to dry for 24 hours. The decorated garment can be machine washed up to 30 ° and must be ironed inside out. The only recommendation ?! Wash your hands immediately after playing: mum doesn’t necessarily want to decorate the entire wardrobe !!!

SOLID TEMPERA FOR FABRIC

It looks like a tube of glue and instead it’s a solid, highly pigmented gouache stick! It is easy to hold and can be drawn on the chosen fabric as with very soft wax crayons! It is advisable to place a cardboard under the fabric to be colored, keeping the fabric taut. Once the color is dry, just place one sheet of paper over the colored area and one under it and iron for 3-4 minutes. The color resists washing in the washing machine up to 60 °; with a higher temperature, the design comes off completely and the garment is as good as new!

CREATE TEXTIL

If you have simple ready-made paints, just use the Crea Textil medium to make them colors suitable for the fabric! It is an acrylic-based additive which, once combined with normal ready-made paints, can be applied to both natural and synthetic fabrics (with the exception of silk). The mixture includes 50% of base color and 50% of Crea Textil; to fix the color it will be sufficient to iron the garment inside out for 4 minutes. Machine washable up to 40 °.

MARKERS AND MARKERS FOR FABRIC

This is probably the simplest and most immediate solution. The different proposals in this range of fabric colors are easy to grip and write like a normal felt-tip pen or marker! If the tip is kept vertical, they leave a thin line, if it is tilted, the line is thicker; however, with these tools it is easier to draw precise lines or make writing. Once the decoration has dried, it is advisable to iron the garment inside out: it will then resist washing at 40 °!

Unleash your creativity to decorate any fabric object that comes within your reach: old T-shirts, canvas shoes you don’t like anymore, canvas shoppers…! COLORS FOR FABRIC ?! YES PLEASE!

Have fun!