Stained by Sharpie Fabric Markers

I found these for only $15 in Big W the other day and had read about them, so thought I'd give them a shot. They have a 'brush tip' so the end is very fine - I was able to write words quite small and neatly - but if you press a bit harder you can get thicker lines.

It's definitely an ink, not a paint. I was imagining it as being more opaque and thick as if I was using a fabric paint, but it's not like that. It's the same effect as if you put ball point ink on fabric - although it is much smoother and easy to use than a ball point pen of course.

I think it will take a bit of practise to get really good and creating designs and using the markers effectively to get smooth lines etc, but they are easy enough to use that you can get right to something that looks half decent.

You need to pull the fabric slightly taut to make it easier, and not press too hard with the marker - if the fabric bunches up you end up leaving the marker on the fabric too long and it pools a little, meaning you get a little uneven splotch. This didn't happen too often though, and I wasn't trying that hard to keep my fabric flat.

For some reason the purple marker was far more prone to splotching than any of the other colours. I don't know why that is.

I also tried out painting the marker ink on to the surface of a stamp and stamping the fabric, which worked too. That would be an easy way to create words and designs if you weren't confident with hand drawing right away.

I think the colours could be slightly better - for example the yellow is a bit too fluorescent for my liking - it doesn't always suit the other colours you're using when one is fluoro and the others aren't. The pink was also slightly fluorescent too.

But over all I was happy with them, and the brush tip design definitely works. You'd need to make sure you look after them, though, so the tips don't get squashed. I.e. I wouldn't let kids use them. For that I'd get the cheaper Crayola brand.

I've only tried it the baby's T-shirt in the picture so far, and even though that is a stretchy fabric, it worked well, so I can't imagine having much trouble on most surfaces.