How I made this clutterfuck emo/scene tank top
A detailed walkthrough (feat: cheap and crisp stencil tutorial)
I got hired to lead an emo/scene platform in drag during Szczecin pride and needed a top for my look (made a different post yapping more on the brainstorming process so im just gonna get right into it)
This is inspired by images made with shuffle which I thought could easly translate into a graphic with my skillset
First I put the thrifted H&M top that I wanted to use for this on with my skirt to see how much real estate i had for the graphic, which ended up the size of a sideways A4 sheet. I drew the sketch with a pencil on a piece of paper.
A shuffle consists of two main layers, the patterned background and the layered 'stickers' lets call them, on top. I knew i wanted to use some black and red striped fabric i had leftover from altering a top, as well as this abstract curved one i had leftover from altering swimming shorts. I also wanted a third pattern that would be an animal print, settled on zebra.
I also knew I wanted the face of Gerard Way in the center, and to reference the "love this guy. Michael Romance" tweet, I also knew I wanted Ayesha Erotica's name on there, since I'm going to be performing her song during the show, so I slapped it on. The rest was just browsing through different shuffles i found on pinterest and stealing sticker ideas that spoke to me and my style.
This was the final sketch, which I ended up quite faithfully following
I knew the stickers I wanted to stencil for a professional even coat of paint and to minimise the amount of handpainting I would have to do. This meant cutting out 23 individual stencils.
People frequently ask me how I stencil things so cleanly and precisely so let me give the detailed tutorial here.
1. Choose your design. And trace/print it on a white (!!) piece of paper in the dimentions you want the final stencil to be in.
2. Cover that bitch in a layer of masking tape on BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER if you don't do it on both sides it will merge with the acrylic paint and marry to your fabric so don't skip this step
3. Using an exacto knife (or I geniuenely reccomend getting a few scalpel blades to use instead of the craft ones as they are immesurably more durable, but I guess not everyone has a surgeon sister so this might be inaccessible to people) precisely cut out your design, leaving support lines so that it doesn't fall apart. If you are new to cutting i reccomand marking your supports in colourful pen so that you don't miss them. This takes time and does a toll on your shoulder. Just be prepared for it.
4. Tape your stencil to where you want to have the print. I would use more tape then there is on the picture for security, i was feeling risky that day I guess. Using a makeup sponge dab on thin layer after thin layer of acrylic paint. Make sure the paint is distributed very evenly on the sponge before pressing it on your stencil, cause if there's too much of it it will bleed and leave you with more cleanup to do. 6-7 layers gives you 100% opacity which is what I aimed for in this project, but typically 4 is more than enough for me for everyday clothes.
5. There you go, you did it. If you want to you can fill in the gaps left by supports with a paintbrush and more acrylic paint, which is what I did on all these stickers.
This method of stenciling has the best price to quality to accesibility ratio and I use it for oh so many things all the time
So yeah I cut out 23 stencils for this top.
Following the dimentions of my sketch i cut out recktangles out of striped and abstract curved fabrics I had, as well as some plain red ones that I stenciled a zebra pattern on (for black on lighter colours you typically are good with one layer). I stenciled the ayesha erotica lettering before stiching the fabric on cause I felt like it i guess and I also included Gerard Way since I knew I wanted him on a patch and on a low layer too.
I handsewed these on for 4 hours. You could totally do this by machine I just prefer the handstiched look infinitely more.
I basically did like 5 rounds of stenciling. I kept a folder inside the shirt to avoid paint bleeding to the other side.
Because of how big stencils are and how dense the design is I could only do a few at the time (typically I go conveyer belt mode and stencil everything I need at once so that as I'm finishing the last design, the first one is dry and ready for the next layer). I helped myself with a dryer. The first layer turned out all being white designs. The second one I did in mostly pink and the third one was just seeing what areas needed what colours. An intuitive process for me, sorry I don't have tangable tips for this, balancing design just comes naturally to me.
Speaking off yes, the whole fit is in a black red and a tiny bit of white and silver colour sceme but I desperately needed a mid-tone in this design so I chose baby pink cause it blends in very well and isn't noticable at first glance.
I outlined most deigns in black using a mix of black acrylic paint and an alcohol marker. It just makes the designs pop way more. I also added more details to all the stickers to make them look more like prints.
The Michael Romance patch, the CD and the big zebra heart were glued on with fabric glue (ended up needing to reinforce them a bit with stiching)
This is what rhe design looked at the end of the stenciling process, super cool and really close to being done, and if this was for me I would stop here but this is for a drag show. So I had to rhinestone it.
They defenietly fits the scene aesthetc of that I am sure.
I used tiny pink solid plastic AB shine stones for all pink details, some silver AB solidbacks for the silver accents like the CD, clear red plastic ones for most of the red and a few champagne clear AB's for the background patches.
Most of the stones I own I got for real cheap, sometimes i even buy them in these big cheap sheets and take them off the glue to use with rhinestone glue on fabric later (as I did with the pink ones)
So like. This project is done. Yippie.
You can see this whole look in real life during Szczecin pride on 20.07.24, both on the emo platform during the parade and in the afterparty drag show later.
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