bicycle tee

In the spring of 2007 I did this drawing of a bicycle on a pattern rainbow over a field of flowers and have always wanted to use it for something. Finally I tried it out on a tee shirt, and I’m pretty pleased with the result.

I love bicycles, I love rainbows, I love patterns, and I love fields of flowers! Plus I like tee shirts, so this project pleases me greatly.

I used an unbleached American Apparel shirt I got for $1 in Missouri and a red fine line Sharpie Jason had hanging around his desk. I put a cardboard box inside the shirt to keep it taught and then started drawing on the fabric. When I was finished I set the ink with an iron, which has done a pretty good job. I’ve washed the shirt in the sink a couple times and there’s been some slight bleeding, but really it’s more like a faint pink glow around the lines and I like it that way. I think I will try another shirt using a different ink, maybe a fabric marker.

UNFORTUNATELY the ink did not hold up to a machine washing. At all. Well… Time to re-think and re-vamp this project! Its reincarnation turned out soooo much better than this American Apparel prototype!