Friday, September 22, 2006

Freezer Paper Stencils

As immersed as I am in the knitting world (ha ha), I had never (gasp) heard of freezer paper stencils until I read about them on Grumperina's cool knitting blog. Aren't they the COOLEST thing? So I did some googling and found more here and here and here. And I still have a big roll of freezer paper from making a fabric marker quilt, so I thought I'd give it a try.

First I found a decent clipart picture. Then I cut a piece of freezer paper to fit into my printer. I printed the image on the non-shiny side of the freezer paper. I carefully (using an exacto-type knife on clearance at Target) cut out parts of the pattern to make a stencil.

Here's what the back looks like:

I ironed it onto an old, solid-colored tshirt I had (and ironed extra freezer paper on the inside so that it held the fabric stiff):

I surrounded the iron-on with old rags so there was no overspray:

Using spray-on fabric paint from Michaels, I covered the stenciled area:

I let it dry most of the way and then peeled off the stencil and let it dry the rest of the way. This morning I have:


Cool, huh? I don't like the little fuzzy strings hanging off, but those are because it's a 2-year-old tshirt. I also was under-whelmed by the spray-on fabric paint and I'll use a sponge and "regular" paint in the future.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

try this DIY silkscreening:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/craftgrrl/3674467.html

Stefaneener said...

Ooooh! I so want a knit pirate shirt like the one referenced on the yarn harlot's blog. . . maybe I can do it.

Later.

hakucho said...

Your shirt is so cool. That's a great technique!!
Thanks for posting about it!

Cindy said...

Very cool! Thanks for the info!

Anonymous said...

You are so amazingly craft-y and domestic. I don't even know what freezer paper is. And I can't believe you cook such varied and wonderful meals on a regular basis....