DIY Color Changing T-shirt

While I was online shopping for blades, tools, and other silhouette related stuff in silhouette website during black Friday deals last November, I came across something called "UV light sensitive fabric ink". If you are a regular reader here, you know I love testing new products. So, I ordered two bottles of UV light sensitive fabric ink in yellow and blue. I was waiting to give them a try(Couldn't try as I was on vacation for two months and then we moved,etc etc) and finally got to try them last week.Keep reading to check how you can make one!!

• T-shirt
• UV light sensitive fabric paint (I used silhouette brand)
• Adhesive stencil (I used silhouette brand)
• Foam brush
• Painter's tape
• A Piece of cardboard
• White fabric paint(Optional)
• Craft knife or Electronic cutting machine(Optional)

Cut the stencil with your favorite design. I used the silhouette cutting machine to make my own stencil using silhouette adhesive stencil but you can use store-bought adhesive stencil in your desired design or cut your own like me or use a craft knife to cut your design on the adhesive stencil. Options are endless. If you want to cut using silhouette cutting machine, below are the settings I followed.

Remove the backing and place the adhesive stencil on to the plain t-shirt in your desired position.Make sure there is no air bubbles and go over all the letters with your fingers to ensure they adhere well to the fabric. Use painter's tape to cover the outline of the stencil and also the gaps in between the stencil to avoid paint .

(Tip: You can weed the unwanted areas and use a transfer sheet to transfer the stencil onto the t-shirt.)

Insert a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt to avoid paint bleeding through. Use a foam brush to apply UV paint onto the stencil in a dabbing motion. Apply 2 coats of paint and allow the paint to dry in between the coats.

Once the paint is dry, remove the stencil and tape to see your amazing work. This is my favorite step ;) Next thing is to step outside and test whether the color is changing.

Here is the result, the white t-shirt with just UV paint changed color and looked perfectly awesome.It did not take much time at all. The color change happens within seconds. Also, it quickly changed back to the indoor color when you come in the shade. The bright color happens only when the sunshine is bright. It was almost cloudy here in North Carolina for past few days that I was waiting for the sun to shine brightly to capture these pictures. It also changes color when it is cloudy but the color change is not that bright which you can see in the middle picture above.

Also, I wanted to know whether the paint withstands washing and yes it did. I did machine wash in cold and left it to air dry.The paint works completely fine and same after wash.

I also tried this paint on a dark colored t-shirt. If you wanna know how it turned out, you can check it here.

Hope you like this fun step by step tutorial of DIY color changing t-shirt. If you are good at freehand drawing you can use the paint directly to make a cool color changing t-shirt or use painter's tape to create geometric shapes. As I said earlier, the option to customization is always endless. I hope you will give this a try this summer and have fun.It is a simple and easy way to update your plain boring t-shirt into something fun. Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always I will be happy to hear from you.

If you like this idea, please vote for in "T-shirt transformation challenge"," Summer Fun contest" and "DIY summer camp challenge". Thank you in advance.