Fall has always been my favourite season, it’s so scenic. I love walking down the street admiring all the beautiful changing colours of the trees, and suddenly a gust of wind blows and the leaves surround me falling delicately to my feet. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

This leaf print DIY shirt is a great way to enjoy fall and all it’s beauty, and as a Canadian it made me feel a bit patriotic with the maple leaf being a part of our flag.

The inspiration for this DIY came to me when I attended one of my favorite events, Friday Night Live at the ROM. FNL has returned (another reason why I love fall!) and it runs until November 27^th. Every FNL has a theme and last weeks was Thank You Canada. As a sponsor of the event Ford provides fun costumes and props that go along with each weeks theme. My friend Justine and I had a blast dressing up in “Canadian attire” and throwing leaves around. This Fridays theme is Dig it! It’s all about archaeology you can check the FNL event schedule here.

Justine & I having fun at #FNL

Continue reading for the DIY

The Supplies

A Shirt
Leaves
Fabric Paint
A Paint brush
Piece of cardboard
A tray

The Steps

The first thing you will need to do is collect some leaves of varying sizes. This was a lot of fun! I went to a park named Trinity Bellwoods and found some leaves that had just fallen off the trees. The fresher the leaf the better, don’t collect the dried leaves as they are more prone to cracking and breaking when you paint them.

If you’re not going to do the DIY within a few days, store the leaves in a zip lock bag and keep them in a book so they don’t dry out and they will be nice and flat when you’re ready to use them.

Put the piece of cardboard inside the shirt, so the paint doesn’t seep through to the other side.

Layout the leaves on the shirt from largest to smallest, or whichever way you prefer.

Pour some paint onto a tray and dip the paint brush in. Hold the leaf in the middle and paint all around the edge of the leaf.

Repeat for the other leaves.

Remove the leaves and let the paint dry, and voila you’re done!