Watercolor Dress DIY

Watercolor flowers just seem to be a great illustration of spring, they give a rainy day effect and have lots of color. This Watercolor Dress DIY is simple to make, you can add as many flowers as you want or just a few here and there. Tulip Fabric Markers are really fabulous for creating designs on clothing and by adding water you’ll have even more options.

TOOLS & MATERIALS:

Tulip Fabric Markers Neons

Tulip Fabric Markers Black

White Cotton Dress

Paint brush

Water

step 1

Lay your dress out flat on a hard surface and decide where you want to paint your flowers.

Put some cardboard inside your dress before you start to paint, this will keep it from bleeding through.

TIP: You may want to practice on a scrap a fabric just to get a feel for how the markers react to the water. I practiced on some t-shirt fabric but when I switched to my dress which is a lightweight white denim the fabric markers bled a little more than on the t-shirt fabric.

step 2

Starting with your neon fabric markers draw your flowers.

Start in the center of your flowers and let the colors fade as you go toward the edges of the petals.

Draw one flower or section of a flower, then using your paintbrush and some water, brush across your marker on your dress.

Using more water will add more of a bleeding effect, less water will just give you a bit of blending on your marker lines.

step 3

Continue working one flower at a time.

If you wait and the marker sets on your fabric you won’t be able to blend it as easily.

Draw some leaves and curling vines in between your flowers, you can also add dots. Mix up your colors, think spring!

step 4

Once all your flowers are done, you can add some detail with a black fabric marker.

I added a little black in some places when it was still wet, but this is a little tricky because it bleeds into the colors.

If you wait until the colors are all dry to add your black marker you can get some clean thin lines to add some detail to your flowers.

Create a pop of color on the collar or cuffs.

Don’t forget the back!

Be sure to check out my blog Trinkets in Bloom to see more fun fashion DIY’s.

Happy Monday!

 xoxo Cathy