Start a trend

The T-shirt is an iconic symbol of late 20th-century clothing. Its simple shape makes it easy, quick and cheap to produce, the large areas of flat fabric are ideal for all kinds of decoration, and the cotton fabric is hard-wearing, easily washable, soft and comfortable to wear. It’s easy to see why the T-shirt is a firm fashion favourite with all ages and with advertisers and promoters the world over. These same reasons make T-shirt design and decoration an ideal activity that the children will easily understand and thoroughly enjoy.

Plain white T-shirts are a cheap resource and can be purchased economically in high street stores. Be sure to choose sizes that will fit the children taking part, as the joy and much of the impetus of this activity is for them to proudly wear their finished creations. It also helps the evaluation process: Was my design fit for purpose? Has it had the desired effect? (Alternatively, children could bring in their own.)

The focus of these activities is on designing and transferring a motif using fabric paints. Both activities will require more than one session and some preparation, as detailed in the ‘Getting started’ below.

Getting started