Bleach and Stencil T-shirt

To create this project I used:

Quilter's Freezer Paper Sheets
Cotton T-shirt
Small spray bottle
Bleach
Iron
Large piece of Cardboard
Clean rag that will not bleed color

Supply Tips:

1.  I purchased my freezer paper sheets at Hobby Lobby in the sewing department.  They were $8.95 for 30 sheets.  I like that you can run these through the laser printer.
2.  Use a small spray bottle rather than a large one meant for cleaning spray.  You will want a fine mist.

Directions:

1.  To begin, you will want to choose a stencil design.  For a first project, I would recommend you use one that you find online.  I chose one from Stencil Revolution.

2.  Print out your stencil on your freezer paper.

3.  Place the stencil on a cutting mat and use a craft knife to cut out the black sections of the template.

4.  Place a large piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt to provide a barrier for the bleach.  If you're not worried about your cutting mat, you could use it in place of cardboard.

5. Smooth out any wrinkles in the shirt with an iron.  Then, center the stencil where you think you will want it on the t-shirt. 

6.  Iron the stencil in place.

7.  Use newspaper or scrap paper to block off all the other exposed areas of the shirt around the stencil.  This will keep you from accidentally bleaching parts of the shirt you didn't mean to bleach.

8.  Spray the exposed areas of the stencil and blot with your clean rag.  Do this several times.  If the shirt does not start turning the color you want, set a 5 minute timer and check it frequently until it is reaches the desired shade.

 

 Do not over spray the stencil. The bleach will bleed under the edges of the stencil and the stencil will start to deteriorate. You can see how my bleach bled and I ended up with small bits of the freezer paper stuck to my T that were hard to remove.

 

9.  Wash your shirt and rag in hot water and dry.

Things I learned along the way:

1.  Over soaking your stencil only causes trouble.  Spray the shirt, blot the excess off the stencil and let it sit for a few minutes.

2.  Washing and drying the shirt will lighten the fabric even further, so don't panic if your design isn't quite as light as you would like it.

3.  Use a thick barrier around the edges of your stencil to protect the rest of your shirt.  This was my biggest failure.  I only used single sheets of white paper to protect the fabric and the bleach bled through the single layer of paper, leaving bleach spots where I did not want them.  Next time, I will use several layers of newspaper.

Excercises for Repetitive Strain and Cutting Myself Some Slack

Just before Christmas, I did a fund raiser that involved a lot of knitting.  The result is that my hands and arms are very tired.  I have all these plans for my Etsy shop that involve knitting, but I'm having to face the facts that my near future needs to involve some other types of crafting that use different movements.

It's going to take some creativity and research to figure out what I'm going to do instead.  I love to knit and would happily do it 24/7 without burnout.  While I try to figure out what I'm up to next, I'm going to be finishing up some projects that I have in the hopper.  One of them is a bleach stencil T. So, be looking out for pics and a description of that adventure.  I will also be doing some stretches to try and relieve some of the strain I've put on my arms.

Are you needing a few stretches of your own?  Try this video.  I love these easy stretches.  They're uncomfortable at first, but feel great with some practice. For a detailed description and therapy routine, you can try this series of three videos.

Valentine's Day Planning

With the Christmas holiday behind me, I've decided it's time to start thinking ahead to the next big gift giving occassion:  Valentine's Day. I love this holiday.  We celebrate the day with small, inexpensive, but carefully chosen gifts at our house.

 I'll never forget the year that we were broke at Valentine's Day, and forced to abide by a very small gift giving budget.  My husband kept teasing me that he had purchased jewelery for me.  I couldn't imagine what kind of jewelery he purchased for less than $5.  So when the big day rolled around, I opened my package with some skepticism.  Imagine how I laughed when I realized that he had purchased a one dollar lanyard for me to hang my nametag from.  The truth was, I had been wanting one, but we were literally counting every penny, and I hadn't yet bought it for myself.  I loved that plain black lanyard, and smiled every time I wore it. Proof positive that it's the thought that counts!

I would love to help someone else give a treasured gift to one that they love this year.  So, I've decided to set aside most of January to think about homemade gifts for Valentine's Day.  Maybe one or two of them will end up going to my family before it's all said and done.

Since knitting needs to go on the back burner for awhile, it's going to take some serious research and creativity to decide on some Valentine's projects.  You can look forward to seeing some new craft tutorials in the coming weeks.

Do you have any ideas for great Valentine's Day?   Leave a comment and a link.  I'd love to see what you are up to in preparation for the big day.

Making a Felt Christmas Ornament

Everyone is looking for the perfect gift at Christmas time.  While "the perfect" gift may vary from person to person, they do have some things in common.  Great gifts show a special knowledge of the person receiving them.  They are often one of a kind or hard to find.  And finally, they show attention to detail on the part of the giver.  This year, I found a great new way to meet all of these requirements in a gift that would work for just about anyone: the personalized felt ornament.

The first key is to decide what the person you are making this for is passionate about.  In my case I made two ornaments this year.  One was for a family that loves all things zombie and the other was for my son who is a competitive Pokemon player.  If I can come up with ornaments for these, you can come up with an ornament for just about anything. 

For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll be showing the zombie ornament.  Curious how to get started on a project like this?

1.  Use Google Images to look up images of the subject you are interested in.  If that yields too many results, you may want to try looking up crafts related to your subject.  For instance, I tried a search for "felt zombie".  It didn't take me long to find a really funny zombie bunny in bright green.  So I refined my search by looking at "felt zombie bunny." 

2.  Using ideas that I liked from different bunnies, I created a paper template for my ornament.  First, I drew the outline of the bunny, and then each of the pieces that would go on the bunny: ears, eyes, and splotches.

3.  There are several different ways to cut out your felt, but an easy one that I used for this project was packing tape.  Cut out the paper pieces you want to use, place them on the felt and apply a piece of packing tape over the top.  The packing tape needs to be big enough to just cover the template. It is okay to overlap the tape if you need more than one piece for a large template.

Once you've taped the pieces down, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut out your pieces.  When cutting out pieces that you will need in pairs, you can double the felt over and cut two at once.  I needed two of everything but the splotches.

Tip:  When cutting out small pieces like the eyes, cut a small square around the piece before trying to cut out the actual object.  Smaller pieces of felt are easier to maneuver.

4.  Once you finish cutting out your pieces, you are ready to attach everything.  I used a small amount of craft glue to tack my ears down and then did a blanket stitch around them to hold them in place.  Don't know how to blanket stitch?  Use this fabulous tutorial from Alice Merlino.

Then I used a whip stitch to attach one eye and a button to attach the other.  A few quick stitches completed the mouth and nose.  The blood splotches seemed to small and oddly shaped to sew on, so I just glued them down with craft glue.

5.  Let everything dry for 30 minutes or so.  The amount of time you should let your project dry will largely depend on the glue you use.  Consult the packaging.

6.  If you want, you can use this time to stitch a ribbon or yarn loop to the top of the back piece (wrong side facing you).  That way, when you sew the front and back together, you will be able to hang your ornament.

7.  Now you can place your front and back pieces with wrong sides together.  Using the blanket stitch, start at the bottom corner and work your way around the ornament until only a 1-2" hole remains. 

8.  Insert a small amount of fiber fill and finish sewing the ornament shut.

Quick Knit for Christmas: Free Knit Cowl Pattern

Recently, I designed and knit this cowl to raise money for a family in our church that is coping with cancer.  It was ideal for a fundraiser because the chunky yarn and easy to memorize pattern made it a quick knit.  If you have to finish a gift before Christmas, this may be just what you are looking for.

Here is the pattern:

Supplies Needed:

Size 13 circular needle 29"

1 Skein of Loops and Threads Charisma in Off White (or a similar No. 5 bulky weight)

Stitch Marker

Yarn Needle

Instructions:

Cast on 60 stitches in stretchy cast on of choice. I used the Twisted German cast on. You can find video instructions here: http://newstitchaday.com/twisted-german-cast-on/

Place a marker
for the beginning of the round and join.

Row 1: K

Rows 2-3: K2, P2

Rows 4-5: K

Rows 6-7: P2, K2

Rows 8-9: K

Repeat rows 2-9 three more times for a total of 33 rows.
Bind off using the stretchy bind off of your choice. I recommend Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abBhe-JYmgI

Weave in ends.
You can give this a gentle hand blocking by putting your hands inside the scarf and pulling your hands apart to stretch the scarf a bit.

The pattern is also available for download on Ravelry.