Expand Your Wardrobe With Tape

Supplies: 

Garment 

Decorative, cloth tape

I started shirt painting many years ago, and the reason that I started was because I had a shirt with a stain and I didn't want to give it up. It was a favorite of mine and I couldn't bear to part with it. After visiting a nearby craft store, as I often did, I discovered fabric paints. I decided that I would paint a little flower or other image over the top of the stain. I did that and I wore the shirt much longer than I would have been able to. Since then, I've painted many shirts, purses, and other things, with cute accents. I still enjoy fabric painting, but when I do it these days, it's often because I want to make my wardrobe look more extensive than it is. You can't believe how an old shirt can look new simply by drawing on it with shirt paints. Decorative tape is another way that you can expand your wardrobe. You can make many clothes look different by creating accents with tape. Plus, you don't permanently change the garment!

Every time you wear a blouse, a t-shirt, or another garment, you can make it look different, and seemingly have an endless supply of cool clothes. Today's tape designs allow you to change nearly any garment an infinite amount of times. Tape comes in every color, from pastel shades, to neon, and many designs, from zebra stripes to pink polka dots. That gives you endless options for changing the look of a blouse, a shirt, a belt, a hat band, boots, and other garments and accessories.

One of my favorite designs, using tape, is to create a fake placket down the center of a shirt. Another is cutting tape and laying it around the collar, around the hem, and around the hem of each sleeve. When you design your tape garment, you can put decorative tape accents on a pocket, a wide banner across the front, or little blocks of color all over the shirt. Although many tape types are stiff, slick or shiny, cloth tape isn't, so it looks like cloth.

I don't have a large clothing budget; maybe you do, maybe you don't. Either way, you'll appreciate the tape technique for making it look like you have lots of outfits. When the day is done, remove the tape, and launder as usual. Get up the next day, choose a different type of tape, and wear the same garment again!