Hi Everyone! I'm Stephanie and I blog over at A Geek In Glasses. I'm super excited to be part of the design team here at Expressions Vinyl Blog.

I love T-shirts and fabrics that have a reverse print to them, when the image is a lighter shade than the rest of the cloth. I came up with a way to reproduce this printing using indoor vinyl. I used indoor vinyl because it is sticky enough to stay place and removes without pulling the fabric. The vinyl does not absorb the dye, so it is perfect for this reverse printing because it does not soak through to the fabric.

Supplies:

Indoor Vinyl
Fabric Dye
T-Shirt or Fabric
Spray Bottle
Water

To start on this project I cut out my silhouette shape of the rabbit on indoor vinyl. I used my Cricut Machine, but with a little practice with a craft knife, a free hand image or traced image could be cut out of the vinyl by hand.

Next I placed the vinyl cut out on the t-shirt, making sure to press the edges down firmly. Since I am going to use fabric dye in a spray bottle I need to have a barrier between the front of the shirt and back so the dye does not bleed through. I used a plastic grocery bag and clothes pinned it to the inside of the shoulders. I also pinned the sleeves back out of the way.

I am a messy crafter so I moved outside for the next step, but it can be done inside. I pinned the shirt to the clothes line and started to spray the fabric dye using a spray bottle. For this shirt I used purple dye, since the shirt was a medium purple color. I saturated the shirt surrounding the vinyl with the dye. By using the spray bottle it creates a fine mist which helps with the blending from the regular color of the fabric on the rest of the shirt.

Once I felt the shirt was sprayed enough and the area all around the vinyl cut out was well covered with dye I left the shirt rest for a couple of minutes.

I then washed the dye off outside by spraying the shirt, with the vinyl still on, with the garden hose. I sprayed the shirt until the dripping water of the shirt ran clear.

I set the dye by tossing the shirt in the dryer on the highest setting the fabric could stand.