Painting simple flowers create a dramatic impact on a solid fabric. We have done it here on a plain bra so that you can see it. You can make it in a couple sof shades of the same color, us several colors or make it monochromatic. It is a great technique to add just a little dimension to any fabric.

Supplies:

Garment
Paint
Tailor’s chalk or small bar of soap
Paper plates or sheets of paper

Directions:

Choosing Your Materials
With this technique, you are basically just choosing the garment and the color of paint that you wish to use.

Painting Your Design
We are going to show you a couple of ways to do this. You are going to want to decide where you want to put the first flower. This is usually in the center of the area that you want to paint or in the center of an imaginary line where you want to put a row of flowers. You will want to mark that spot with Tailor’s chalk or a small bar of soap. This will become the “center point” of your first flower. Then determine how far apart you want all of the flowers. Do you want them in a straight line or random or some type of pattern? This will all depend on what you want. Even if you decide on a “random” pattern, there is still a certain amount of planning and design. So, you should decide how far apart you want your flowers and cut a piece of paper or card stock that is that measurement to use as a guide. Then, everywhere that you want a flower, mark another little “center point.”

We don’t usually recommend puffy paint in this technique but we are going to use it for this demonstration to make it easier for you to see. However, we do like the puffy paint when using it on lace or when using glitter because it gives it more of a three dimension.

Once you have chosen which flower you want to use, then scatter them around the area you want to cover using the “center point” dots you previously made as a guide. Since you have used a medium like a bar of soap or Tailor’s chalk to mark these “center points”, you can delete any marks you decide not to use.

Find the center of the area that you want to cover with flowers. Plan out where you want to put the flowers and mark the fabric with a dot everywhere that you want to put a flower. We are using ink to mark the fabric so that you can see it. But when you are doing this, we recommend using Tailor’s chalk or a bar of soap to mark the fabric. This allows you to change your mind.

The first flower we are going to show starts with a little dot and then you just pull the paint out creating a “petal.” You create about five petals pulling the paint out from that first starting point. This flower has more of a 70’s feel to it.

The second flower is created by drawing a little circle and then drawing additional circles of the same size around that original circle. The bigger the center circle, the more petals you can put around it. This second flower is a perfect flower to put a rhinestone in the center of the little flower. These are our favorite flowers.

Usually we use these flowers to add in other elements like rhinestones or lace. Sometimes we will use the same color as the fabric just to give it a little bit of a three dimension.

Practice on a piece of paper until you are happy with the way the flowers look because once you put on the fabric, you cannot take it out. You should also try to map out where the flowers will go on the garment.

Be careful when you are painting the flowers that you do not drag your hand over what has already been painted. Obviously, that would just smear the paint.

Sometimes we get a little drop of paint where we do not want to have a flower. When that happens, we just go with it and create random drops between the flowers as if they had been planned that way.

Think about it, plan it, plot it out and you will find that it is actually very easy.