Soft fabric paint? Spray?

seeker ↓

Mon, May 22 2017, 12:43 am

Crafty people, please tell me what product I am searching for so I can find it online/in stores.

In my experience, fabric paint makes the fabric stiff. I guess it's meant for small designs and non-sensitive people.

I want to have children make designs on towels. Of course it would defeat the purpose if they come out crunchy. What type of paint do I need?

I also had the idea that they can decorate the towels using stencils and maybe spritzing paint over the stencils. Assuming that is actually a feasible plan then what kind of paint would I use? (a little worried about spray making it more likely to damage clothes? Should we do sponge painting instead or would that take too long? The intention is a one-session project, and I'd like to make towels they can use for swimming.)

On that note, any tips on where to buy plain white towels in bulk (about 40) would be greatly appreciated. Quality is not a huge priority, I think anything would suffice as long as it doesn't actually unravel or anything.

Iymnok

Mon, May 22 2017, 6:03 am

Fabric painting is way easier and more reliable on a smoother, tight weave fabric.
You can water down the fabric paints so that it goes all the way into the nap. But it will come out looking more like watercolor painting. You may do better on the tighter woven band or painting tea towels. You can also use fabric markers.
If you get big bath towels, I suggest big bold stripes. The normal suggestion for setting the color is ironing which doesn't work well on towels. Maybe throw in the dryer?

Painting with stencils on a skirt can be really cute.

↑ seeker ↓

Mon, May 22 2017, 10:16 am

Hmm. I'll keep thinking... It's for a "first week of camp" project, I had in mind for the kids to make something with their bunk's theme that they can then use during the summer. I thought swim towels would be cool but if it won't work then we go back to the drawing board.

SixOfWands ↓

Mon, May 22 2017, 10:27 am

seeker wrote:

Why not tie dye tee shirts? Get oversized shirts, and they can use them as pool cover-ups.

↑ seeker ↓

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:14 am

Backpacks too expensive.
T shirts I guess are a possibility but it's not very original and also less useful. And we did tie dye last year. The option remains open but I am trying to think a little more creatively. I also have tie dye on the list as a backup plan for the end of the summer in case things took less time than planned or something falls through.

↑ SixOfWands

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:22 am

seeker wrote:

Tote bags are cheap.

http://www.orientaltrading.com......fltr

↑ seeker

Mon, May 22 2017, 2:04 pm

So are we all in agreement that decorating towels will totally not work? Sad

My kids used towels for last year's tie dye and they came out fine. I guess tie dye is different but I was sort of thinking maybe they could do something similar just... not tie dye.