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Fabric Medium: Making Acrylic Wearable
Acrylic paint straight from the tube will stick to fabric and will not stay there. It dries into a stiff film that cracks with movement, flakes at fold lines, and comes away in the wash. Fabric medium exists to solve exactly that, and it is one of the few additives with a single clear job.
What it changes
Fabric medium does three things:
- Flexibility. The dried film moves with the cloth instead of cracking across it.
- Penetration. It thins the paint enough to soak into the fibres rather than sitting on top as a crust.
- Wash resistance. Combined with heat-setting, it bonds the paint so it survives laundering.
It also softens the hand of the finished piece considerably — painted fabric without medium feels like cardboard.
Preparing the fabric
New fabric carries sizing and finishes from manufacture, and paint will not adhere reliably through them.
- Wash the item in hot water with detergent.
- No fabric softener, at any stage.
- Dry fully and press flat.
Natural fibres — cotton, linen, canvas — take fabric paint best. Synthetics vary; polyester works reasonably, and anything with a water-repellent finish will not work at all.
Mixing
Follow the label. Most fabric mediums run around one part medium to two parts paint, and the ratio matters — under-mediumed paint is stiff, over-mediumed paint is weak in colour.
Mix thoroughly in a separate container rather than on the palette, and mix enough for the whole piece. Matching a colour mid-project is harder than it sounds.
Our fabric mediums listings give the mix ratio and bottle volume for each product, including the heat-set requirement, which differs between brands.
Working on the fabric
Put a piece of card or a board inside a garment before you start. Fabric paint soaks through, and the back of a t-shirt is not where you want a mirror image.
Stretch the fabric taut — tape it to a board or use a frame. Painting on slack cloth produces distorted lines that never quite recover when it is worn.
Work in thin layers rather than one thick one. Thin layers penetrate; thick layers sit on the surface and are the ones that crack.
Drying and heat-setting
Let the piece dry completely — at least 24 hours, longer for heavy application. Fabric feels dry before the paint has finished, so give it more time than you think.
Then heat-set. The usual method is a dry iron on the appropriate setting for the fabric, with a pressing cloth over the painted area, for a few minutes with the iron moving. Some mediums specify a tumble dryer cycle instead. Follow the medium’s instructions rather than a general rule.
Skipping this step is why painted fabric washes out. It is the whole point of the process.
Washing the finished piece
- Wait at least a week after heat-setting before the first wash.
- Turn inside out.
- Cold water, gentle cycle.
- No fabric softener, no bleach.
- Line dry, or tumble on low.
Fabric medium and other mediums
Fabric medium is specific. It is not interchangeable with a pouring medium, a flow improver or a general fluid medium, and none of those will make paint washable on cloth.
You can use them together for particular effects — a little flow improver alongside fabric medium for finer line work, for example — but the fabric medium has to be in the mix for the piece to survive wearing. Related products are listed under pouring and fluid mediums.
Markers as an alternative
For line work and lettering on fabric, acrylic paint markers are often easier than a brush, and many are heat-settable in the same way. They give control that a loaded brush does not, particularly on textured cloth.
Check the marker is acrylic rather than oil-based for fabric use — the two behave completely differently. Both are listed, with their surfaces, under paint markers and pens.
Choosing paint
Any decent soft body acrylic works with fabric medium. Heavy body needs more medium and more thinning. Colours with heavy pigment loads — the earths, titanium white — cover better on dark fabric, which is where thin acrylic usually disappoints.
Sets are under acrylic paint sets. We are on 3rd Avenue, open early Monday to Saturday and closed Sunday — ask us, see the FAQ, or browse the range.
From our shelves
Products in this store that relate to what is covered above:
Prices are in US dollars. Delivery timings are on our shipping policy page and the return and refund policy sets out the window if something is not right.
Key points
- Fabric medium makes acrylic flexible and washable on textile; without it the paint cracks and flakes off.
- Pre-wash fabric without softener to remove sizing, or nothing will adhere properly.
- Mix by the label ratio, usually around one part medium to two parts paint.
- Heat-set once fully dry — the step that makes the piece washable — following the medium instructions.
- Work on a surface with card inside the garment so paint does not bleed to the back.
- Wash finished pieces inside out, cold, and never with fabric softener.
