Play Eat Grow: Play: Wocket Freezer Paper Stenciling

Remember I said that we were going to have Suess things all week? Well, here's another!

I made this shirt. I did it, and I don't have a screen printing machine or anything. All I used was freezer paper, an exacto knife, an iron, a paintbrush, and some fabric paints.

Now I had seen people talking about freezer paper stenciling different places, but I had honestly never heard of it. Well, apparently it is a for real thing, and it is called freezer paper. And the rolls it comes in are big! But I bought mine at Wal-Mart, and it was less than $6, and I have so much more left, so I think it was money well spent. And if you don't know what freezer paper is, it's basically parchment paper with a plastic coating on one side. It's the stuff that meat gets wrapped up in when you buy it from the counter. That stuff. Although, I would suggest using paper that has not had raw meat wrapped in it for this project. :)

Anyway, now on to the project. I chose a Wocket because well, it was just perfect for this pocketed t-shirt of Sebastian's. I couldn't resist. I will say, after doing it, a graphic that was not quite so detailed or with small parts would have been simpler, but it still worked out. Just keep in mind that when you pick a graphic that you are going to have to cut it out with an exacto knife. Not necessarily easy, but definitely doable.

Okay, so first I printed off a picture of the Wocket scaled to the correct size. I placed a piece of freezer paper on top (shiny side down) and traced over the picture. You can actually cut the freezer paper to letter size send it straight through your printer, but I'm a bit of a cheapskate and opted to print on my free-after-rebate paper from Staples and only use a small bit of freezer paper. But the choice is yours.

Then I cut out the picture. I left some of the outlining intact so that I wouldn't have to add that outlining back in later and so that I could easily have the separation of colors for the hair versus the head.

Then, with a hot iron, iron the stencil where you want it. (I ended up cutting it down a little more, so I have some of the pocket peeking through. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done that on purpose. )

Put a piece of cardboard in between the layers of the shirt. Then, with fabric paint, carefully fill in the stencil. I used a regular brush because I felt like I could have more control for the small spaces, but many other people use the foam brushes. Just make sure you get all the way to the end of the stencil, going over onto the paper a little to make sure you have a nice clean line when you pull it off.

I had to do two coats to make the color saturated enough. I waited a half an hour in between coats.

Then, when the paint is dry, or even when it isn't (I've done it both ways), carefully peel off the freezer paper. It should come off with no problems.

If your stencil is basic enough, you are done. But my Wocket needed some eyes and a nose and for the mouth to be a little more defined. So I went back and added them with a fine tipped sharpie. You could do this with paint, but I didn't feel confident enough in my painting skills for that.