Customizing fabric face masks with Disney's Stitch and Hei Hei.
I bought a pair of face masks I painted Disney's Stitch and Hei Hei onto. I thought I'd share the steps I took to customize the masks with fabric paints.
Supplies and Stuff
Below are the items I used for this art project:
Cloth face masks
Fabric/textile paints
Paintbrushes
Container of water
Paint palette*
Towel
Paper (optional)
Steam iron for clothes
*I happened to have a water bucket with a lid that serves as a paint palette. However, many items can serve as a paint palette. I've used wax paper, used food container lids, and paper towel sheets to squeeze paint onto.
I had a 2-pack Tommie Copper brand community face masks I wanted to customize. They're typically available for $20 USD online, but I bought it from my local Home Depot for $15 USD.
I used Crafts 4 All 3D Fabric Paint to customize my masks. I got my set of 24 colors through Amazon.com during a flash sale last year. I got two sets of 24 colors, so I'll be using this brand of paints for a long time.
Planning and Preparation
Because my face masks were new out of the package, I felt like they were already clean. However, I used a lint roller to remove any specks of lint and dust.
If you're painting a used face mask, or a face mask that's been removed from the original packaging, wash and dry the face masks before customizing.
Once the face mask is fully dry, place a scrap piece of cloth, paper towel, or paper inside the face mask before painting. This will protect areas of the mask and work surface you don't want to get paint onto. Many fabric paints I've used tend to bleed through cloth.
Decide what design you want to paint onto your face mask. You may consider sketching and painting it on paper to make sure you'd like the design. I chose to sketch my design on paper and cut it out as a stencil.
I don't recommend painting the entirety of the face mask. Painting over the face mask would minimize the porousness of the face mask. It'll be difficult to breathe through when you need to wear it.
Consider painting your design on just a portion of the face mask to allow maximum airflow when worn.
Painting... The Fun Part!
Whether you use bottled fabric paints like I did or paint markers, make sure you have clean water readily available. You could use a wet paintbrush to cleanup any minor errors made while painting.
If you have limited colors available, you can mix colors on a paint palette to make a different color. This applies to paint markers as well. Just scribble the markers onto a slick palette like waxed paper and use a wet paintbrush to mix a different color.
While I had 24 colors to work with, I would've been comfortable with just the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). Primary colors can be mixed to create many other colors that may be needed for a paint project. Personally, I also find it helpful to have white and black paint.
If you choose to dilute fabric paint, use very little water. A drop or two should do. Too much water, or a very saturated paintbrush, would make the paint transparent after a few hours. If transparency is what you're going for, then dilute your heart away!
In fact, diluting fabric paint would help you add details to your design. Depending on the material of your cloth masks, paint bleeding may cause uneven lines and edges. Diluted fabric paint (or a fine tip paint marker) would help you add fine detail to your design.
Drying and Heat Setting
The time it takes for fabric paint to dry completely varies by type, brand, and amount of paint used in the final design.
From my personal experience, Posca paint markers dries completely within 24 hours depending on how many layers of color were applied. Lighter colors also seem to take longer than the darker colors to dry.
Crafts 4 ALL 3D Fabric Paint take about a full 24 hours to completely dry. If the paint is laid on thick for a three-dimensional effect, the thicker paint takes even longer to completely dry.
Once the paint is completely dry, it needs to be heat set for it to become permanent. There are different ways to heat set fabric paint. I chose to place parchment paper over the painted design and slowly move my steam iron over it for a minute or two.
Online sources, including Posca's Fabric, textiles and skins webpage, claim hair dryers or heat guns may work for fabric not suitable for ironing. I think this is also a good alternative if the design is primarily three-dimensional.
My Thoughts
I've enjoyed painting clothing items these past few months. While I know I'll continue to paint items like jeans and shirts, these are likely the last face masks I'll paint. I have enough customized face masks to last me however long I'll need to continue wearing face masks.
At least if I make it to Walt Disney World while face masks are still required in some situations, I now have Disney themed masks to wear in the parks!
Stitch is my favorite Disney character, and I'm surprised I waited so long to customize a mask with his face on it.
Hei Hei is one of my favorite animal sidekicks, but he was challenging to paint since I've never painted birds before this. It was a fun challenge that turned out alright.
What's Next?
I've been having fun with my new 20W NEJE Master 2 Diode Laser Engraving Machine. I'll share some test projects with you soon.
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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