Getting Crafty with Leaves...How to Embellish a Shirt for Fall

Please excuse the wrinkles... I was so excited at how well this turned out that I didn't bother ironing before taking photos!
This is a shirt I embellished for my mother in law by printing a pattern along the neckline using real leaves.

Materials to make this project include:
a shirt,
some fabric paint,
a sponge brush,
scrap paper,
something to line the shirt with to prevent the paint from bleeding through (I used a plastic lid from a storage bin)
...and of course a selection of leaves. Make sure your leaves are not too dried out...you don't want them to crumble mid-project!

After preparing the shirt by lining it with my storage bin lid & smoothing out the neckline where I wanted my leaf pattern to go, I mixed up a palette of fabric paints in fall leaf colors. The brands of paint I used were matte Tulip brand soft fabric paint & Lumiere Metallic Acrylic...mixed together for added glitz.

I brushed the color on thick...coating each leaf evenly.

Then lay the leaves onto the shirt...paint side down in the pattern you desire.

To get the pattern to transfer well...you'll want to cover the leaves with a piece of scrap paper...and burnish the back of the paper gently yet firmly... with your fingertips, but be sure to not move the leaves out of their position or you'll get a smudgy pattern.

Finally lift off the scrap paper carefully...and then pull up the leaf by the stem slowly...so as to not smudge the design.

I think this project came out so nice & this color green really sets off the contrasting color of the leaves nicely.

My mother in law looks really good in green! I can hardly wait to give it to her!

:o)