Freezer Paper Stenciling

Guys are so hard to craft and sew for! But I had the perfect idea this year. I made some pretty sweet shirts for my husband and one of our little guys for Christmas.

They have bikes on them. My husband loves to bike. I not only made the shirt for him using a raglan shirt pattern I drafted myself, but I hand cut the stencil for it from freezer paper.

(Hello, Silhouette??!? I’d love to be given one of your products to try. Or win one. Whatever works. But I don’t have $300 to buy one! Not even on Black Friday!)

I digress.

I cut the stencil using a bike picture I found online. I cut it with some guides from my dad’s shop to help go around the curves nicely. I used a utility knife (not shown) and cut on my self-healing mat I use with the rotary cutter.

After I got it all cut out, I found out I had to carefully place the pieces inside the wheels. So it was like putting a puzzle together. I then ironed all the pieces into place.

I applied fabric paint to the stencil. I didn’t actually use a brush. I used a scrap piece of fleece. It worked out fine.

Here’s my first draft of the stencil. I actually cut three of them. I had to test it out before I tried it on the shirt I’d made.

Here’s me doing it to the actual shirt. Same steps. Just more fear.

I spent a lot of hours on this shirt! I am so excited to give it to my hubby—sorry this post won’t be up before Christmas, but I can’t risk spoiling the aura of surprise!