A Hoodie

I made a hoodie over the weekend.

Okay, I didn't make it, rather I took a hoodie I already had which had a crappy design on the front and I turned it into a hoodie with something I like on the front. Here's how I did it!

Step the First: I went to the craft store and bought some fabric paint. I went with the "soft" matte paint, because I can only assume that the solid and/or shiny stuff would look awful.


Step the Second: I painted over the crappy old design. For support and to keep the fabric flat, I stuck a piece of cardboard inside the sweater. To get something suitably close to the navy blue color of the fabric, I mixed "Marine Blue" with "Ebony" in a 1:1 ratio.

It looks like a much better match in real life than in this picture.

Step the Third: While waiting for the paint to dry, I drew a stencil and cut it out with an Exacto knife. I used a piece of corrugated cardboard for my stencil; this proved to be a mistake.


Step the Fourth: After the blue paint dried, I taped the stencil to the sweater and painted the design in white. Upon removing the stencil...


I realized why cardboard was such a poor choice. There were flecks of cardboard in the paint, and many spots where the paint seeped under the stencil. No doubt, my decision to use a sponge brush was also partly to blame for this sorry state.

Step the Fifth: Undaunted, I set about salvaging this. Using a fine brush (an actual brush this time, not a sponge), I painted over the spillover with the dark blue paint. I then went and added a bit more white to the spots that needed it.


Step the Sixth: I wore it with pride.
Or, I would if it weren't so frigging warm. I should have done this back in December.

By the way, I got the design from here.