Sorry everyone I'm pretty new to this making costumes thing so Im having a little trouble with how the best way to go about printing something onto fabric.

Im currently in the early stages of making a cosplay of Souji Okita from "Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kittan" and theres a simple gold pattern on his reddish brown outer kimono thing. Part of me was thinking of painting it on but Im scared it will look messy or streaky... someone mentioned screen printing it but Im not sure how to go about it. I'm also considering tackling the triangles on his shinsengumi haori in a similar way. Any other suggestions are welcome too =D Thanks and sorry for the large image

Oooh! I love fabric painting. :3

There is a way you can do this with fabric paints but with a pattern like that it is quite time consuming and will need a steady hand. Definatly invest in some proper fabric paints for this,like Dylon. They do a very good metallic gold paint and also do seperate ranges for light fabrics and dark fabrics. Its not set until you go over it with an iron so if bits do go wrong, you can wash it off. I used them to paint the butterfly on this jacket (as modeled and now owned by the lovely Freyarule) http://www.cosplayisland.com/costume/view/25839

Did make few mistakes with this in the process but was easily washed it out with a damp cloth and carried on,so don't worry about mistakes etc when you do it. Also fabric paints don't go streaky when you paint with them. The only thing you may have to do is go over the pattern a few times to give a solid colour, be sure to set between each layer though.

Alternativly you can use Acrylic paints in a similar way though I've not used these personally but know others who have with good results- only issue with this method is if you make a mistake its harder to rectify as Acrylics stain and do not wash easily. Its good to practice first with either paint you choose.

To do the pattern, you may want to consider making a stencil which is how I made the butterfly pattern earlier. I just used normal craft card for this then cut out the pattern then carefully paint within the shape directly onto the fabric.

Screenprinting is similar to the stencil method but maybe better if you're worried about brush strokes/streaks. The prep for this is time consuming but does produce clean and crisp results if done properly and well worth it. You can easily make a screen at home with an old photoframe or an embroidery hoop and a pair of tights 8D

TUTORIAL FOR SCREEN-PRINTING:

http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html?page=2

You can use proper screen printing paints, though I'm sure you can use other paints but again, i personally have no experience in that so not sure what to offer as an alternative to proper Screen-printing paints. I'm sure that acrylics or fabric paints would also work in this but can't guarentee it. So again, its best to practice before hand....

Ermmm...

Sorry its turned into a bit of an essay...lol hope it helps...just ask if you need any more questios/help.

x x ttfn x x

Thank you for that advice picklesofdoom. I'm glad you took the time to give me some good ideas about how to go about this as I am well and truly clueless

The stencilling sounds like a nice simple way so I'll give that a go on some tester pieces.

And again thank you =D

You're very welcome m'dear! I'm glad it was some help to you. Good Luck with the pattern painting!! =^___^=

Ahh, this is one I've planned to make in the past myself, not sure how helpful I can be, as Picklesofdoom pretty much mentioned everything I already considered.
In the end I was planning to design a stencil in photoshop, print it off and cut it out in thin plastic to use with fabric spraypaint or a roller of some kind. But it'd have to be done in pieces, with plenty of time drying between them.

If you go this route, speaking from experience, I'd recommend staying away from Dylon paints and going for Marabu Textil or Marabu Textil Plus paints. They're thicker, brighter and leave a much nicer finish on garments. The patterns on my Gin costume were done with them after trying out Dylon paints. 100% better IMO.

For the Shinsengumi haori (yet another thing I've had on my mind for a looooong time) I've always thought the best way would be to bondaweb the triangles on and applique the edges. Buuuuut I guess it's all up to personal preference. If you painted them on with the Marabu paints it'd look pretty darn good, too~

//two cents~

Oooh Marabu Textil Paints? I've not heard of them before but they sound good so will definatly have to give them a try =^__^=

Yush I've used them quite a bit, they're good Can't really compare them to Dylon as to me both were similar but yeah either brand is ok by me XD

Fabric paint is definitely good.

The patterns on Storme's jacket for her Rush Sykes cosplay was done using silver fabric paint (http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/costume/view/29764), not stenciled but with a POTATO STAMP. XD I laughed so hard watching her do it but it really worked well. And any bits that needed retouching was done simply with a paintbrush!

I've had good experiences with stencils, masking tape and spray paint.

Yes, spray paint. Obviously air brushing is better, but your basic tins of paint works pretty well even if it's a bit stiff.