How To Stencil a Shirt Using a Freezer Paper Stencil

Alrighty folks. Here is a detailed tutorial on how to stencil a shirt using the freezer paper method. First things first. Here is a list of supplies that you need:

Freezer Paper
Fabric Paint OR Acrylic Paint and Textile Medium
X-Acto Knife
A surface to cut the stencil out on
An iron
A piece of cardboard or something to stick inside the shirt for when you're ready to paint
An image to stencil
A shirt
A paint brush






Ok, so let's tackle the image first. I used this image:



In order to keep the text lined up straight, I like to insert my image into a word file and then play around with my text size and font and all that till I get it how I like it. To get the image from the computer onto the shirt, you have two options.

Option 1) Print directly onto the freezer paper. This is by far the easiest way. First, you'll need to find out which way to put the freezer paper in your particular printer. This is crucial because the image has to be printed on the non-waxy/dull side of the freezer paper. I have a very high tech way of doing this (heehee). I take a regular piece of printer paper and write "shiny" on one side and "dull" on the other. I put it in the printer and take note of which side is facing up. For instance, say the "dull" side is face up and it comes out printed on the shiny side. That would mean you need to hereafter put it in with the "shiny" side facing up so it will print on the dull side. If you put it in "dull" side up and it comes out printed on the "dull" side, hereafter you'll put it in that same way. I hope that makes sense. Also, of course, you'll have to cut the freezer paper to the size of a regular piece of printer paper.

Option 2) The option I'm currently using (sighh). Well, our printer is broken. So I have to just put my piece of paper on the computer screen and trace my image off of the computer.



This sucks and is more labor intensive, but sometimes we must do what we must, right? If you're using this method, you'll need to cut your paper to roughly the size of the stencilable area on the shirt like so:



Now, time for cutting out your image. This is what my image looks like at this point:



I colored it in for you guys for purposes of this tutorial. You don't have to do that. Ok, so as you can see, there are 3 different bits. There are black bits. There are white bits that are still attached to the larger portion of the paper. And there are free floating white bits. These are called islands. Confused? Check out this handy dandy diagram (click to make it bigger):



(Since it may not be clear-in the diagram when I point at the white bit still attached to the larger portion of paper, I'm referring to that white part of his cheek, not the white bit on his eye.) What you want to do is cut out the black parts. This will make an empty space where paint will eventually be. So, try to cut out the biggest black part in one piece. Leave the islands for now. We'll deal with those later. If you cut out a black part and there's no island in it, you can toss it. If you cut out a black part and there is an island in it, set it to the side. Here's what my stencil looked like after I started cutting:



So as you're cutting, like I said, place the black parts with islands to the side. Cut out your letters last. You'll need to save any letters that have middles. Because of the kind of font I used, my only letters with free floating middles were O's. Here are my black bits with islands:



And here are my two O's that I saved:




Here's my stencil completely cut out:



Now it's time to start ironing the stencil down!! Woohoo!! Ok, get your cardboard or whatever and put it inside the shirt. This is to prevent the paint from bleeding through the front of the shirt and onto the back.

Now, just iron down your main stencil. After you get that ironed down, you need to cut out your islands and attach them. I usually do this by using the black bit and the island as puzzle pieces to get them properly placed. Like this:



Here's the island after I get it all ironed down:



So, do that with all of your islands and with the middles of your letters. I always go back over everything with the iron again to make sure that it's ironed down really well. And now you paint! If you're using fabric paint, just follow the directions on the bottle. If you're using acrylic paint and fabric/textile medium, you'll have to mix them. Directions vary by brand, but mine says to use 2 parts of textile medium to 1 part of paint. I prefer Tulip Soft Fabric Paint, but I was out, so I used what I had instead.



Just make sure that you don't go off the edges of the paper onto the part of the shirt that you don't want painted. You can do a second coat if the first coat looks spotty or if your particular shirt seems to have soaked up a lot of paint. Now, you just have to wait for it to dry enough to take the stencil off. I recommend waiting till it's 100% dry so that your lines will be really clean. Once it's dry, and you're ready to remove the stencil, just peel it off. You can use your X-Acto knife to peel up the edges of the little bitty island pieces. And then you have this:



Ignore all that crap on the shirt. I don't know what it is. I think it came off of my iron. But, isn't it awesome???!!! And if I put it on my ultra cute baby boo, it looks like this:



Lastly, you need to turn the shirt inside out and iron over the design on the wrong side for at least 30 seconds on high heat. This will heat set the paint and make it last longer. I have several shirts that I've made like this for my kids and they've all lasted well over a year.

Now, a few tips:

1) Don't use any kind of ribbed fabric. The paint will bleed like crazy and you will cry.
2) If you can find one, use a swivel X-Acto. They're way easier to use on corners and curves.
3) The reason that the freezer paper works is that it's wax coated and the wax melts just enough with the ironing that it bonds to the fabric.
4) Although tracing your image off the computer screen sucks, it does have one advantage. If you print directly onto the paper, you're limited to the area of that piece of paper. If you trace off the screen, you can make your image as big as the area of the shirt that you're using. It'll involve some scrolling and repositioning of the paper, but that's no biggie if you're already going to the trouble of tracing anyway.
5) DO NOT use a dark colored shirt like black or navy blue. If you do, you'll have to use a lighter paint color and the paint will be a lighter color than the shirt fabric and your image will look reversed, like a negative. If you guys like, at some later point, I can teach you how to do a bleach stencil so that you can use a dark colored shirt. By the by, you don't have to use black paint. I also like to use navy blue or chocolate brown paint a lot.
6) Make sure that your edges are ironed down realllllly good. And when you paint, try and do so from the edges in so there's less chance of any bleeding under the stencil. I rarely ever have this problem, but I've made at least 40 shirts like this, so that may be a factor.
7) If you have any questions, just ask!!!! You know where to find me:)