Painting on a T-shirt?

I am applying acrylic paint on a red t-shirt and the red is bleeding thru the acrylic. How can I prevent this from happening? The shirt has been laundered several times. I have put 5 or 6 coats of flesh color on it and the red is still bleeding thru.

Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!

poehere
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 105 Posts

February 9, 20180 found this helpful

Best Answer

It has been my experience with painting on T-shirts, you'll need to buy special paint to do this with. Just using an acrylic spray paint in the can won't work for T-shirts. The paint is a water based paint and because of this the color from underneath will bleed through.

15mhhm15
Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,298 Posts

February 10, 20180 found this helpful

Best Answer

Some acrylic paints are made for paper and canvas. But there are also some acrylic paints for fabrics - you might go with that instead.

Or, you might need a medium (paint thinner).

You could ask your local craft store.

cybergrannie
Gold Feedback Medal for All Time! 949 Feedbacks

February 13, 20180 found this helpful

Best Answer

Red is rated as the color to "most likely fade/run/bleed" so you may always have trouble with the red bleeding any time it is laundered.

There are special paints for material but red is a strong color so if you are trying to put white on red it will probably never work the way you want it to.
Here is information from one web site:
Acrylic Paints
You can use acrylic paints on T-shirts. All you need to make regular acrylic paints suitable for T-shirt painting is a textile medium. Simply mix 1 tablespoon of textile medium for every tablespoon of acrylic paint before applying the paint to your T-shirt. The textile medium converts regular paint to fabric paint so it doesn't dry up and crack when applied. (Textile medium can be purchased on line or at any craft store.)

I believe you will have to try and make your T-shirt colorfast before applying the paint or it will run into the "white" area every time it is laundered.
Here is one suggestion:
www.popsugar.com/.../How-Set-Fabric-Dye-Clothes-35015330
There is a lot of controversy about whether salt or vinegar will "set" the dye but it seems that it may depend on the material, temperature of water, as well as other factors.
If you are able to paint your shirt without bleeding, I would recommend you use something like "color catcher" in every wash.
www.amazon.com/.../?tag=hubacct7650-20&th=1 (Affiliate Link)