ShoppingGirls LOVE to create. Fine Arts, Crafts, Cuisine, Landscapes, Home Interiors; ShoppingGirls are inspired to make things their own.

Since we’re going to talk about the hot custom clothing movement, especially slogan T-shirts, which have made a huge come-back this season, we have included a few vintage photos of popular ShoppingGirl.com T-shirts designed by Founder Tom, who has owned the business since the 1990s.

ShoppingGirls literally fought over these super-popular shirts, with battles ensuing even among the celebrity crowd in Los Angeles.

That’s understandable, because every ShoppingGirl rightfully admires her own skills as an Apex Shopper. After all, we ShoppingGirls have learned through experience, effort, and advice from others how to maximize our money to get the best value on the products we purchase. Some people may scoff at ShoppingGirls, but those scoffers benefit from their ShoppingGirl moms, wives, sisters, daughters, and friends who bless their lives with great food, comfortable homes, meaningful gifts, and events celebrating the Good Things in Life.

While our Founder, Tom, designed all of the ShoppingGirl.com T-shirts, he had them professionally produced. Hey, he ain’t a crafty ShoppingGirl. However, you are, and you may not yet have discovered the wonder that is Clothing Blanks, even if you have made a few of your own T-shirts.

So, what are Clothing Blanks? They are, simply enough, apparel and accessory items that are produced in a plain form using fabric and thread easily dyed, painted, and otherwise embellished as you like. They are produced without sizing or other treatments that clothing manufacturers typically put onto fabrics, which can interfere with dying or painting the item. Clothing Blanks are intended for you to customize to your exact taste or outfit needs. Create an item to match another piece in your wardrobe, or dye items in the perfect shades for your skin tone. You are no longer restricted to the often limited color range of most manufactured clothing.

If you haven’t yet discovered the convenience of Clothing Blanks for making your creative apparel dreams come true, check out these wonderful resources that will fill your creative journal and Pinterest boards with possibilities.

The best known online resource for Clothing Blanks, dyes, paints and related items is Dharma Trading Co. They have been in business for a long time, are knowledgeable about their products, provide detailed how-to information on their website, and offer a wide range of products suitable for all ages and experience levels.

If you want to create just one piece, an entire wardrobe, or items to sell on Etsy or at your local boutique, Dharma Trading Co. has what you need for a great price. The more you buy, the cheaper the each item is, and the shop frequently features clearance items, discounts, and sales.

The Clothing Blanks come in an astonishing variety of styles and sizes. You aren’t limited to the usual T-shirts and tote bags here!

Most of their line comes in white, but they also have a line of black apparel, great options for embellishing with studs, crystals, metallic foils or paints.

Dharma Trading Co. offers apparel in all kinds of sizes too, for regular and plus-sized adults, kids and babies. In addition to clothing and accessories, they have lots of other items, such as bed and bath linens, decorative household items, toys such as stuffed animals ready for embellishment, creative pieces for costumes such as masks, and lots of excellent fabrics and specialty threads and the like for those who want to sew their own special pieces.

There is truly no end to the creative possibilities you have open to you. If you are a ShoppingGirl who is frustrated trying to find apparel in flattering shades, this approach is ideal for you. Not only can you wear the most flattering colors, but you can ensure that your entire outfit matches perfectly (if that is the look you’re after). As most ShoppingGirls know, you can even find undyed Shoe Blanks (these are commonly used for weddings), so your footwear can match your customized bag, belt, scarf, and outfit pieces as well.

What about the old-school classic, RIT Dye? It still works great for all kinds of things, but may not offer the range of shades or intensity of color saturation that you’re after. Still, it’s worth visiting the RIT Dye website, where you’ll find lots of tips, techniques, color charts, and the like. One of the advantages of RIT Dye of course is that you can pick it up at your regular grocery store on a whim (although the color selection may be extremely limited). It’s also an affordable and easy to use product that’s a great option for children’s projects. Just keep your kids and the dye away from the family pets….

And two final tips about good old basic black apparel: Faded or thrift store/used finds can be surprisingly revived with a simple dye bath, depending on the color and fabric. This is a great way to freshen up your black apparel. Also note that, unless your black separates were purchased at the same time and from the same line, it’s unlikely that they match perfectly. There are many shades of black, some more blue, others leaning toward brown or even red, for example. You can overcome this issue by dying your outfit yourself all in one batch.