DIY: Stencil T Shirt

Jan 8, 2013 | 35 Comments

I’m highly in like with today’s DIY!!

I have a decent amount of sporting gear – USC hats, Jets hoodies (I know, I know, they’re a total disaster…), Yankees bloomers (that’s right – I got them from Victoria’s Secret when they were doing logo-ed sports team underthings last year), but after all my years in Los Angeles, I am without any Lakers attire.

Having a Lakers game on the agenda, I needed something color appropriate and prideful to wear to cheer on the team. I went to my trusty stash of Hanes Ts (I bought the five pack from Target a few months back mainly for reasons like this) and got crackin!

Basic Hanes!

In my mind I went the stencil route and started to do a search over the interwebs to find a font fun enough to rock on a T.

Yeah, I found that font.

Stencils!

It was borderline clown-ish, but felt that I needed my L and my A to look just like this.

I went to my glorious Reynolds Freezer Paper, which is one of the most genius inventions ever for crafting but I’m not sure how well it works in the actual freezer, and began to work.

The brilliance with Freezer Paper is that one side is waxed and the other side is like parchment paper.

Freezer Paper is legit!

I put my letter print out underneath a sheet of freezer paper, tracing the letter on the non-waxed side.

Trace my stence

I trimmed my letter out…

Trim my stence

…and then ironed the paper down! The waxed side sticks down to your project, making it the perfect stencil!!

Iron my stence

With my letters affixed to the T, I grabbed some Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in purple…

Ironed and in place!

…and got painting!!

Let the painting commence!!

I coated my shirt and let the paint dry…

Paint, down!

…before peeling away the freezer paper!

I love to peel!!

Now that my letters were down, I decided to deconstruct the neck a bit. Two reasons I did this…ONE, I like this style. TWO, I got paint right under the neckline.

Neck trim!

With my neck tweaked, I had a shirt ready to cheer in!!

New Shirt!

I even captured my Laker Girl-ness by attempting some jumps.

Super Excited!

With my outfit done, it was time to head over to Staples Center! We got a sneaky/awesome spot in a lot around the corner from the arena that avoided all the melee and I took my pre-game/let’s go Lakers/fingers crossed, pic before heading into the arena.

Pre-Game ritual!

Kobe said hello from the center screen…

Kobe!

…and so did this massive hot dog called the “Skyscraper”. Hello to you too, buddy!!

Game ritual

I mean how do you not take a pic with Magic??

New Dress A Day - DIY - stenciled Lakers T-shirt

ML & MJ

Unforch, the Lake Show lost… Pau Gasol turned out to be in Concussion Land and Kobe was asleep for half the game. However, you know what was a success?? My T!!

I Love LA

Cue Randy Newman…

In all · Dollar Dress Remakes

http://www.facebook.com/mary.hovelhenderson Mary Ann Hovel Henderson

Where, oh, where did you find that font?? I want it for a special project!!

newdressaday

Yes! Let me find it again for you – shoot me an email with your email address. newdressaday (at) gmail (dot) com
newdressaday

Mary Ann – this is the name. Kingthings-Versalis. Shoot me your email and I can send you the zip file!

Emily

I am so excited about freezer paper!! And the shirt is great too!
Sue Kol

Love this idea! Have a question about fabric paint. does or stay good after a wash too?

Francie

I do this stenciling all the time and the paint does fine. Either wait 24 hours before washing or heat set the painted area for about 30 seconds with a press cloth. I have some t-shirts that are at least 5 years old, and the paint still looks great. The trick is to mix it with fabric medium which makes the paint a little softer and less crunchy.

Diane

What’s “fabric medium”? Where do you get it?

sandra

fabric medium is a liquid that is mixed with your paint to prevent the paint from bleeding on the material, and also allows the paint to be flexible so it does not crack in the wash. you can find it at most craft/material stores.

newdressaday

Another fabric medium user…LOVE!!

Francie

I do this stenciling all the time and the paint does fine. Either wait 24 hours before washing or heat set the painted area for about 30 seconds with a press cloth. I have some t-shirts that are at least 5 years old, and the paint still looks great. The trick is to mix it with fabric medium which makes the paint a little softer and less crunchy.
newdressaday

Yeah, just follow the directions on the bottle…the pieces I’ve made have been totally fine!

Karen in Seal Beach

Go Clippers! I think I might try this for my next Staples Center jaunt to see the other (read better) LA team. Haha great remake as always Marisa!

newdressaday

Ha, agreed I love Chris Paul and am a Clippers fan for sure. My true hometown team is the Knicks, but I love basketball.

Cathryn

Love the font and the shirt and the tip about freezer paper but ketchup on a hot dog? That’s a big “no-no” here in Chicago!

Lauraly

True that, Cathryn!
newdressaday

Ha, I know! I’m doing the Chicago folks wrong with the ketchup! I love me a Chicago dog though…ooh, eeeee!!! (Portillos is the JAM!!!)

James W

I was skeptical of that font, but it looks surprisingly adorable on the T. Well done.

newdressaday

I feel you…it’s a little much on the page for sure!

SparkLeigh

I didn’t know about the freezer paper! Really good to know. It seems like the melted wax left a slight yellow discoloring around the letters— did that wash out?

newdressaday

That picture where I was peeling off the paper still had a paper bag in-between the top and bottom of the shirt – that’s the discoloring. The shirt is totally white around the edges!

SparkLeigh

Ooh great! Thanks for the clarification.

Lauraly

Totally love that font….so cute! Why not glam the rest of the tee up a bit? You are so creative….go for it!
Nikki

I am totally feeling some yellow/gold jewels on this shirt to glam it up a bit! Maybe you could outline the letters in them? Such an easy and cute idea when you need a team shirt in a pinch!

newdressaday

Oh, for sure! I was totally thinking about glitzing it up. Next time!!

Sarah_H.

freezer paper! That’s what I needed Monday! I had my grandgirl here all day and wanted to do some crafting with spatter paint and shapes. But I did not know what to use to stick the shapes to the tshirt so they would mask off an area but still come off when we were finished. Ha! Now I know. You can guess what we will be doing one day pretty soon. Thanks Marisa.

newdressaday

Yes, do it Sarah!! Send me pictures of your projects!

Shelley

That shirt is awesome! Kinda sad though that Lakers is on a losing streak but i know, i know that they’ll bounce back. hopefully SOON!! KOBE!!!! Do your thing!!!

newdressaday

Kobe needs to bring it, especially with all the injuries at the moment. OY!

http://www.facebook.com/veejer Veronica Nunez

You can also cut the freezer paper to fit in your printer (I don’t recommend a laser printer due to the heat), and print your image directly onto the freezer paper. I’ve done a few shirts that way.

newdressaday

Yes, definitely! I tried that once with iron-on transfer paper in a laser printer and the results were disastrous Inkjet is the way to go!

Rebecca Macdonald

I totally do freezer paper stencils. I like to cut the paper on my Cricut – no tracing required! My kiddos love to do it too. I’ve found that a sponge dabber works great for the paint. With more intricate designs the freezer paper can lift up and paint can seep under. I made hilarious ‘Christmas Vacation’ quote t’s for the grown-ups at Christmas. The dabber was perfect for this since there were at lot more letters.
Eileen

I did some shirts for my son and his friends recently and used the freezer paper method – works beautifully as long as you don’t have extra cuts around the edge, and if you make sure all edges are pressed down thoroughly. You can even use them two or three times if you’re careful about how you peel them up after painting! Just FYI – I used Jacquard Fabric Paint on mine and they did need to be heat-set – but the nice thing was, they were really flexible and a lot less “plastic -y” feeling once they were done, without having to add a fabric medium.
Valerie

Omg I am so doing this for my daughters HS dance team! We did not have funds in the team act to order shirts this year, these would be perfect and very inexpensive to make for each girl!
Allison M

I just bought myself a tank top that I’m going to do this with! Thanks for the idea. However, I’ll be buying some bling to bling it up with too!
http://twitter.com/eduardasouto Eduarda Souto

Adorando seu blog, parabéns!! Virei fã… sou brasileira, beijos

DIY: Stencil T Shirt

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