Low-Tech Screen Printing Tutorial (cheap!)

This is by far one of my all time favorite craft tutorials. I found it a couple years on the lovely LJ community CraftGrrl. Its an easy and cheap way to screen print shirts.

Here's what you need:

1) Embroidery hoop. For more stability you can use a canvas frame and a staple gun.
2) Sheer fabric. Tulle and Nylon don't work very well but you want something that you're going to be able to see through and paint will soak through.
3) Mod Podge
4) Fabric paint (whatever color you want)
5) Paint brushes
6) Scissors
7) Pencil

You'll also need a shirt or something to print on, and a pattern, drawing or design to print.

The fabric should be sheer like this.

First you want to attach your fabric to your embroidery hoop or frame - make sure it is firmly secured and stretched out tight. Next you are going to trace your design onto the fabric.


Thanks to Girlx512 for the image. (and the next few)

After you've traced your design you are going to paint in all the NEGATIVE space with Mod Podge. This means you want to cover any area of your design that you don't want to be colored in when you print it.



Once the Mod Podge is is dry you put it down on top of whatever you want to screen print and gently dab the fabric paint (or screen-printing ink if you have it) through the screen.



Once it's dry you should have an awesome screen printed shirt (or bag, or something else) for cheap! Here's what I did: