How to sun print shirts?

Dyeing or printing your textiles lends you even more magic and creativity to your handmade garments—and the process of making them. One of the earliest photographic printing methods, Cyanotype printing, is an artistic yet accessible process that results in beautiful custom textiles. If you sew your own clothes and want to create unique sun-printed garments, this guide will introduce the cyanotype process step-by-step.

Find more details and tips related to these supplies throughout the article.

Cyanotype was discovered in the mid-1800s and has since produced monochromatic prints of photographs and field specimens. The cyanotype process yields a deep blue hue on paper and natural fabrics, creating a negative print of any object arranged to cast a shadow on the surface during exposure to sunlight.

The three main considerations for your cyanotype garment project are the print objects, the sewing pattern, and the fabric.

Print Objects: I love using pressed or fresh plants for cyanotype because of the intricacy and variation in opacity—more sunlight can pass through a flower petal than a leaf. You can also use household objects, paper cut-outs to create an image or spell a word, or photographic negatives—anything that casts a shadow. Decide on a layout for your print objects before starting the printing process. You’ll need to work relatively quickly once the fabric is sensitized!

Sewing Pattern: Smaller pattern pieces are easier to work with for beginners, and simple design lines allow your prints to shine. In this tutorial, I work with the Sew Liberated Strata Top; it meets these criteria and also has a relatively large seam allowance, which provides a bit more margin for manipulating fabric at the edges. However, you could also choose a more involved pattern and feature the cyanotype via patchwork or color-blocking.

Fabric: Choose a fabric with all-natural fiber content. Cotton, linen, viscose or rayon, and silk all work well. Fabric should be white or off-white for the most vivid prints. Lighter-weight fabrics will require less cyanotype solution. Smooth-textured fabrics will produce clearer prints—in my tests, slub-textured linen caused the prints to distort. For this project, I used a linen-rayon blend.

You can work with pre-cut pattern pieces (cut first, cyanotype later) or fabric yardage (cyanotype first, cut later)—there are benefits and drawbacks to both.

You may elect to work with cut pieces if you are just starting with cyanotype, as yardage can be a little unwieldy. However, yardage does give you more margin for error, especially around the edges of the fabric, where hanging and folding can create color variation.

Whichever method you choose, I recommend running some tests on small swatches before going ahead at the project scale. This allows you to confirm your fabric choice, print objects, and exposure time—given the weather.

If you use pre-cut pieces, make sure to zigzag around the raw edges, as you’ll be manipulating the fabric quite a bit. I finished my pieces with Gütermann Sew-All No. 230 to match the cyanotype color.

I used pre-cut pieces for the front and back of my shirt for this project, but I cut the neck facing from a larger piece of fabric that I had already printed with cyanotype. This latter method might also be good if you’re sewing something with several small pieces, like a collar.

Mix the two stock solutions in equal parts to create the final cyanotype solution. Note that the final solution is only stable for a couple of hours and is sensitive to sunlight, so do this in a dimly lit space when you have your fabric pieces ready to go.

Mix the final solution in a dedicated or disposable bowl or container. Dip the fabric pieces into the solution, coating them completely.

Allow fabric pieces to dry in the dark. Be mindful that any folds or creases in the fabric as it dries will create a slight color variation once exposed to sunlight. These variations can look really beautiful, but if you’re hoping for a monochromatic blue, be careful to hang or lay your pieces, so they are somewhat taut. Once fully dry, store sensitized fabric in the dark.

Before exposing your fabric to sunlight, arrange everything in a dimly lit room. The best way to get clear prints of lightweight print objects is to lay your fabric pieces on top of a cardboard or foam backing board, place the objects on your fabric, and lay a clean sheet of glass (picture framing glass works well) on top. The glass keeps the plants close to the fabric and holds them firmly in place, which is key for a crisp print.

Alternatively, you could use binder clips (within the seam allowance) to secure the fabric to the backing board and pin the plants down. I find that glass works better than pinning, but this will vary by project.

For this project, I used two sheets of glass to cover my fabric pieces. As a result, there is a very faint line on the final garment from where the glass pieces meet.

Objects held further away from the fabric will create a less defined print. Objects removed or added throughout the development process will give different vibrancies. You can play around with these factors to get different effects in your prints.

Now for the fun part! Bring your project outside (or to another UV light source) and start a timer. The fabric will look grey or bronze when it reaches full exposure.

The time required for exposure will vary significantly depending on the environmental conditions and the depth of color you want. I worked with some test swatches before my actual pattern pieces to determine my ideal exposure time. This was on a sunny autumn day in Canada with a UV index of 3. On the other hand, I worked with cyanotype on a cloudy day last winter, and that project took a full hour to expose.

Paint a t-shirt using heat from the sun — an awesome craft for teens & kids this summer!

You know when you find those inspirational points where two seemingly unrelated things collide?

Like frozen hot chocolate?!

You think “Man, I’m not sure how that came together but it just works!”

That’s what we have for you with this project — Science + Craft = Awesomeness!

Today we’re combining the science of sun prints with designing your own t-shirt.

It’s a super easy activity for kids of all ages and one that will really let their creativity shine through.

Plus it’s a great way to introduce a little science and also make a unique t-shirt for back to school (which is happening way too quickly in our neck of the woods — only 15 more days of summer here).

I love so many things about this project!

It’s creative and colorful — the kids don’t even mind hearing about the ‘science’ behind a sun print because they’re busy painting and designing.

And it makes a one-of-a-kind item!

Not only is a wonderful kid-friendly craft but it would also be a great gift.  Find some of Dad’s most favorite things and design him a t-shirt for Christmas this year 🙂  And it’s also nice for a class to do together as a teacher gift or perfect for a camp activity.

Our inspiration for the shirt came from Craftiments where they created sun prints with nature items on a piece of fabric.

Here are a few things you should know before you get started:

1.  Don’t pick the hottest day of the year to do this like we did!

And when I say HOT, I mean 99 degrees and HUMID – bleah!

It’s actually the humidity that was horrible as it really delayed the drying process.

But you will need a SUPER sunny day so be sure there aren’t any clouds that will be rolling in.

2.  Do choose more than one color for your shirt.

You never know how the paint will dry and we found that prints showed up better where we used a medium color paint (not too light and not too dark). Experiment and have fun with it.

3.  Be sure to warn the kids that it will take a while

Like 4 hours in our case 🙂

You have to let the sun do it’s work — which leads me to #4 …

4.  Lay out your project on a large sheet of cardboard or thin piece of wood

This will make it easy to move around the yard as the sun moves.

We didn’t do this at first and had to carefully slide the board under the finished shirt without moving any of the objects.

Remember I mentioned how humid it was here.  This photo appears to be hazy because my camera lens kept fogging up while I was trying to get a shot of our supplies!

To make your own sun print shirt, you’ll need the following items – we’re including affiliate links to what we used for your convenience:

•  an all cotton white t-shirt – be sure to wash the shirt before the project so it’s not ‘brand new’

•  2 or more colors of acrylic paint – this will stain other clothing so cover the kids with a smock or wear old clothes.  We used — Acrylic Paint Midnight Blue — in case you aren’t familiar with the type of paint.

•  a few paint brushes at least 1 inch wide (we liked the 2 inch wide paint brush we used)

•  items from around the house or yard — you can see what we used in the tutorial below but any solid item that doesn’t allow light through it will work

WARNING:  The items you use will be touching we paint!  We had no issues with the paint sticking but I just want to point that out.  For example, don’t choose any paper item as it will dry to the shirt and get ruined.

The shirt: First, wash your shirt.

This will remove the sizing on the shirt so the paint will adhere.

You will also need to submerge your shirt in water to get it completely wet right before you begin the project.  When you take the shirt out of the water, don’t squeeze hard — just lightly twist out the excess water.

The paint: The first thing you’ll need to do is water down your paints.

At first, we used a 1:1 ratio but due to the humidity, the paint was pretty thick so I had to wet down the shirt during the project.

I would add a little more water than paint (like 40% paint, 60% water) but don’t water it down too much or you’ll dilute the color.

Lay out a work area where you can lay the shirt down flat on a large board or piece of cardboard which is covered by an old towel or plastic tarp.

If it’s sunny outside, put the kids in a shaded location like we did and that will work great!

Choose how you will paint your shirt and which items you will use to make the prints.

We decided to paint three bold horizontal strips across the shirt.  My daughter chose 3 shades of aqua/blue but any deep colors should work.

Remember that the idea of a sun print is the white of the shirt will show through where you lay your items so don’t choose any light colors or you may not see a good ‘print’.

Be sure to place your items next to you as you will put them on the shirt as soon as you are done painting each section.  You can place them randomly or be specific about what you’d like to see.

For example, we put the shell necklace around the collar of the shirt with the large die at the bottom hoping it would look like a pendant when the sun print was formed.

Here’s another shot of our work area.  My daughter found it was easier for her to sit and paint.

Since the shirt will be wet, you don’t want to lean on it so finding one spot to work from will really make things easier.

One tip while you’re painting — do you see that bristle that’s coming off?

You want to keep an eye out for those since they will dry right to the shirt.  Just pull them off if any come loose 🙂

Here’s what the shirt looked like once all the items were placed.  This will give you an idea of what created each sun print when you see the final version.

We used some natural items (rock, seashell), a few of our favorite Safari Ltd Ocean TOOB, our favorite Narnia item (Susan’s horn) and some odd items.

When you choose items, the ones that worked the best for us had solid sides that were touching the shirt.  For example, the seashell made a sun print that looked more like a circle.

Once all the of items were on the shirt, I sprayed more water over the whole thing to help the paint thin out a little more — this is a great trick if you think you’re paint went on too thick.

We finished painting the shirt at 2 p.m.

And then we had a snack, read a book and moved the shirt to a sunnier spot.

It was still tacky when we felt it at 4:30 p.m. so we left it alone for a while longer.

Drying is actually a 2-step process.

At 6 p.m., we took off the items and moved the shirt into our screen house to finish drying. You can actually see the the sun prints here are quite distinct and stand out nicely.

Once  was completely dry, I put the shirt in the dryer on high heat for 1 hour to help the prints set.  Don’t skip this step! I also tossed in an old towel with the shirt.

This is what it looked like when we took it out of the dryer —

Kind of like a vintage faded tie-dye shirt 🙂

And in case you’re curious, here’s a shot of the back of the shirt (which I love almost as much as the front!)

I know what you’re thinking — how do you wash it?

We’ve hand-washed ours in cold water in the sink.  There hasn’t been any paint running at all which I’m sure is due to the fact that we heat set the shirt in the dryer.

Honestly, I’m a little scared to try the washing machine because I would have one sad painter if something happened to the shirt so I think we’ll stick to hand-washing for now.

The science with this project is found in the solar energy emitted by the sun.  As the shirt dries, the water/paint mixture evaporates from the open areas of the shirt.  The parts of the shirt under each of the various items will remain moist because they are protected from the direct rays of the sun.

Once the open areas of the shirt are dry, the heat energy will pull the paint/water mixture from under the items to the dry areas of the shirt.  When this happens, the original white of the shirt is exposed.

This is why it’s important to use solid items as they will keep the covered areas of the shirt wet while the rest of the shirt dries.

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• Make Paint. Dilute the paint with water at a 1:1 paint to water ratio.
• Wet the Fabric. Wet the fabric in a bowl of water and squeeze it out until it is no longer dripping.
• Paint the fabric with a big paintbrush.
• Press the leaves and flowers.
• Place in the sun.
• Remove leaves.
• Set the paint.