Tutorial: Make Your Own Shirt Stencil

I learned this really awesome trick in my textiles class last semester. Maybe it's something that lots of people know how to do, but I was really excited to learn about it! Basically you can design your own T-shirts and make a stencil for it out of freezer paper. It's so easy and fun to do! I have seen so many tees that I love but they are always so expensive so I like having this new way to recreate them.

This is the first one I did in class. I took the idea from a delias tee that I loved!

Let's do a step-by-step on how to do this:

What You Need

Freezer Paper

Pencil

Scissors or X-ACTO knife

T-shirt

Iron

Newspaper or plastic bags

Paint (I just used the $.50 acrylic paint)

Round flat paint brush

Alright let's get going!

On the NON-waxy side of the freezer paper, draw what you want on the shirt. Make sure that you "bubble" it or whatever, so that you will have a thick line for your letters.

Take your knife or scissors and carefully cut out the design. You want your cuts to be as smooth as possible to help your painting look better. I highly recommend an X-ACTO knife. They are only like $3 and make the cutting so much easier. For letters like that J, keep the cut-out piece from the middle.  

Lay out the freezer paper on your shirt with the WAXY side against the fabric.

Then just press it with a fairly hot iron. Mine was almost all the way up. Don't be afraid of high heat. As you're pressing, be sure you don't get any bubbles or creases, keep it flat and smooth.

Then place the little cutouts where they belong and press them.

Get yourself a little paint...we don't own paper plates so this is what I came up with :)

Dip your brush in the paint and dab the excess off. You don't want the brush to be caked with paint. Also, stick some newspaper or plastic bags in between the shirt layers so it doesn't seep through.

Lightly dab in your stencil...seriously don't get too much paint on your brush or the shirt. It will take forever to dry and it's just not necessary. You just want a thin layer of paint

Here's what it will look like after all the paint is on. Let it dry completely.

When it's dry, just peel off the stencil carefully.

Then you will have a fun new shirt! I have regretted not getting an I Love Paris shirt when I was there, so I tried to make up for it. It's definitely not perfect but it's still fun.

This is seriously addicting! I already have a whole list of shirts I want to make. It's so much easier than trying to sketch your design on the shirt and painting with a tiny little paintbrush. If you make one, send me a picture! I would love to see what you come up with.