I had an idea for a project and I finally sat down and did it. I have a linoleum carving set from an illustration class in college, so I made myself a “cross stitch” stamp.

I made a grid on the shirt first using a ruler and a a fabric pencil. I folded the shirt in half to get the midpoint and started from there and worked out drawing lines every half inch.

Make sure you put some sort of cardboard inside the shirt to avoid it bleeding through. I used fabric paint and a sponge brush. It was tedious but I brushed a thin layer on every time, I didn’t want to risk dipping the stamp in and getting excess paint on the shirt.

I always use a heart when I do my little cross stitch experiments, it’s a simple enough shape and I already have a pattern for it. I want to make a more complicated design now that I’ve done one and know it works! I’m going to block print “cross stitch” all my clothes!

If you want a more detailed, step by step tutorial, Haley from The Zen of Making has a great one for making a cat shirt here.