In this era of vivid and realistic galaxy prints everywhere you look, I really craved a vintage looking galaxy shirt, which, of course, I couldn't find anywhere. So I decided to make one! Since I am a huge Star Wars fan, I decided to spice it up a little bit on the back :)
After years of experimenting with color dyes, I discovered that navy is the trickiest color to dye cotton fabric into. After a number of trial-and-error attempts, I finally discovered that the best way to achieve that nice vintage navy color is to use diluted black dye. In order to achieve an uneven navy color I used an unevenly colored grey shirt as a base. I used black Marabu Easy Color dye, followed the instructions on the back, but I used twice the amount of water recommended, so that shirt would not turn too dark.
Since the shirt I used was old and had a little hole in it, I first sew it and then attached a golden sequin over it using textile glue. I also added few random sequins all over the shirt, just to give it a little sparkle.
I first did letters on the back. I wrote "May the Force be with you" on a piece of plastic tape with a permanent marker, and put it just under the spot I wanted to write on, so I would get the letters properly lined.
After that I used chalk pencil to copy letters just above the plastic tape which I then removed.
Toothpick was my weapon of choice for this project, since brushes tend to smudge the lines when writing on textile. Years of expirience led me to use Rayher DecoArt textile paint in white, since it lasts much longer on the textile, even with machine washing.
Once the letters were done, I continued using my toothpick dipped in white paint to randomly paint precise little dots and a few stars and meteors all over the shirt. This whole process took only 20 minutes, where with paint brush it would take much longer because of the smudging.
Front.
Back.
Hope you like it as much as I do!
