This is a sponsored post with Bella+Canvas. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.   

It’s Hoodie Weather!

If you have followed me very long, you have heard me rave about Bella + Canvas short sleeve shirts. I love these shirts because they are extremely soft and have a wonderful unisex fit that is true to size.

Well, guess what… Bella + Canvas makes a hoodie too. Just like the shirts, these hoodies are soft and fit great.

The best part.  They are just as easy to screen print on as the shirts are. They really work so nicely with the water-based Speedball ink I use.

Recreating that Favorite Old School Hoodie

Don’t you just love that old hoodie from high school that has that perfect aged look and fits just right?

Have you ever wondered how to recreate that look on a new hoodie?

In this post, I will show you how to do exactly that.

I have written extensively about the difficulties of using white ink on dark fabrics.  In this project, I want to show you how to take the challenges of using white ink on dark fabrics and use them to your advantage.

White ink has a natural tendency to look faded on dark fabrics. It can also crack when washed and stretched. Instead of getting frustrated by these flaws, embrace them.

Take that white ink and make a great looking hoodie with the popular vintage or worn look.

Screen Printing with Water-Based White Ink

I have always chosen to screen print with water-based ink for a few reasons.  I love how water-based ink soaks into the fabric leaving a nice soft finish. 

Water-based ink is also very practical for screen printing at home. If you are a crafter getting started screen printing with your vinyl cutter, using water-based ink is a wise decision. 

This type of ink can be cleaned up easily in your sink and requires no fancy equipment to cure the ink. 

Plastisol inks require a flash dryer or conveyor dryer to cure the ink. With water-based ink, you can cure the ink with your t-shirt press, EasyPress or household iron.

While I love screen printing with water-based ink, printing on dark fabrics with a white or light color ink can be frustrating.  When you print a design on dark fabric, you may noticed that you can see the shirt color through the ink.  This typically gets more noticeable after you heat set the ink. 

While this can be frustrating when you're trying to get a solid white print, this is a very helpful quality when it comes to making a vintage look.

Watch the Process

How to Get a Vintage Look with White Ink

I screen printed several hoodies for this tutorial to share with you the different effects you can get with white ink. 

For this first hoodie, I used a good amount of pressure on the squeegee and covered the design 4 or 5 times before lifting the screen.  This gives you a thicker coat of ink and what appears to be a more solid white coverage. 

This thicker coat of ink is going to crack as you wash and wear it. 

For the next hoodie, I used less pressure on the squeegee and only went over the design 2 times.  This allowed less ink through the screen. Lifting the screen revealed a design that already looked worn. 

If you are trying to achieve a more vintage style, using less ink is a great way to achieve this. 

Tips for getting a more vintage look

• Use Speedball white fabric ink.  This is a different consistency compared to other colors and is most likely to crack for the vintage look.
• Experiment with less pressure on the squeegee.  This will allow less ink to go through the screen.  A thinner coat of ink will look more vintage right away. 
• Wash, dry and pull your sweatshirt.  As you wash and wear your shirt, you'll notice it continues to have more cracking.

Support the Makers: Movers, Shakers, Hustlers

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