Get Creative Making Wearable Art

I am not sure quite how the tradition started but one hot summer afternoon I purchased a pack of white undershirts for each of my boys with a promise they could decorate one with my permanent markers.  We set up at the kitchen table, placing a section of the paper inside each shirt to prevent bleeding through.

My main intent was just to keep everyone busy for an afternoon with a novel new canvas for their drawings.  I was pleasantly surprised by the delightful nature of their designs and the stories that went along with them.  One involved a many chambered space station with stick figures occupying the different rooms - many engaged in space related explorations and activities while others were just "doing the disco" complete with different colored disco balls.  Another featured a collection of doggies playing soccer.

The kids enjoyed the bright colors on the white shirts and I noticed they drew fairly smoothly in spite of the fabric surface.  The newspaper inside helped to stretch the shirt and make writing easier.  Permanent markers come in so many colors these days that there were many options for their designs.

The shirts have been worn proudly and wash well, even the small details completed with fine point pens can still be seen and remembered because part of wearing the art is sharing the story.  Shirt making has also become a great way to celebrate other stories and events.  

A visit from friends prompted four boys around the table delighted to make shirts and wear them together.  My boys also created custom Halloween shirts for themselves, delighting in drawing frightful things.  Lacking just the right shirt for red, white and blue day at school, my older son designed his own featuring a flag design.

We expanded our clothing design to shoes, purchasing simple white canvas tennis shoes at a discount store and decorating these with dogs, favorite characters and rocket blasters.  The color lasted well on the shoes too but the shirts are by far the favorites.

What started as an experiment to keep everyone busy for an afternoon has turned into a tradition and I find myself feeling sad as I notice a drawing shirt is soon to be outgrown.  Maybe someday we will make a quilt of all the drawing shirts to commemorate their fun wearable art.  In the meantime handmade t-shirts make great play shirts, art shirts and add playfully and inexpensively to the summer wardrobe.