Summer Camp Crafts: A Simple Graffiti Sweatshirt In Black And White

Summer is here, and yet this summer is not like other summers, sigh. Here at CJM central we seem be in the middle of eternal vacation, well sort of, with the future of schooling this year very uncertain. Rather than dwell on that, and whether some of my kids will actually get “summer vacation” when and if school starts, lets get busy making summer camp crafts, as there is something about messy or process oriented or outdoor type crafts that just makes many of us happy, not to mention busy and creative! Speaking of busy, this graffiti sweatshirt project could keep someone busy for hours and hours, and when my daughter disappeared into her room for long periods it dawned on me that she must be working on a graffiti sweatshirt! This graffiti sweatshirt idea was born when my teen daughter wrote all over one of her brother’s old white shirts as  Purim costume (keep on reading for photo) and realized that she’d like to create a sweatshirt in the same style to wear as pajamas……and voila, a graffiti sweatshirt was born. And then another for a friend, and then another, but with color added! So, if you love to doodle, and love lettering, and/or drawing little items, this is the project for you, or your kids, so get a cheap sweatshirt, some permanent and/or fabric markers and enjoy. If some areas don’t turn out wonderfully, just get some dark fabric paint and pour splatters over the areas you’d like to cover, ah yes, this is where the outdoor crafting part comes into the picture! Enjoy this one, and actually if you want to keep yourself and/or the family really busy, you could do a comforter cover, or a set of sheets using this graffiti sweatshirt as inspiration………..

You’ll Need:

• a white sweatshirt
• an assortment of black permanent markers and/or fabric markers, in various sizes: fine, medium, thick, etc
• masking tape for writing on a straight line, or making large letters that are of equal height
• a hard piece of plastic or cardboard to insert into sweatshirt

How To:

My daughter improvised with this project, however, I would recommend doing a bunch of practice pages with little doodles and sayings before actually writing on the sweatshirt. One could also actually design the sweatshirt by scattering larger elements around the sweatshirt and then filling in with a variety of smaller elements between the spaces. One can also spend a bit of time designing the layout on a drawn outline of the sweatshirt so that the outcome will be slightly more predictable than with my daughter’s method. There is something to be said for spontaneity, on the other hand since this project is a time investment of at least several hours, planning may prevent  having to dye the whole sweatshirt black if it is not a success?

Ah yes, below is the Purim costume shirt that lead to the graffiti sweatshirt craze in our house, and can certainly be fun inspiration for you as well!