Freezer paper is located by the plastic wrap and aluminum foil. A large roll runs $6-7, but it will last you FOREVER.
Freezer paper is shiny and plastic-y on one side and plain paper on the other. The plastic coating will stick to fabric when it's ironed, but can easily be peeled off.
If your design has free floating details, like the insides of letters, you'll need to hang on to those pieces and reposition them within your design. The nice part about using pumpkin carving templates is that there aren't any floating pieces.
And here's a brief how-to!
You'll need:
- freezer paper
- a design to trace
- a pencil
- an Exacto knife
- bleach in a spray bottle
1.) Trace the design onto your freezer paper. You can see through it pretty well. How much excess freezer paper you leave around the edges is kind of personal preference. I leave more when I use bleach to protect the rest of the shirt.
2.) Sit down with your Exacto knife and start cutting.
3.) Position the freezer paper on your fabric and iron. You'll want to press and then lift and press some more as opposed to sliding the iron back and forth. Sliding it will catch on the details and rip them. Make sure you get a good seal on all your edges! I put a piece of cardboard inside and put the whole thing on an old towel. I fold the bottom of the towel up over the bottom of the shirt so there aren't any incidents with wayward bleach.
4.) Using straight bleach in an old hairspray bottle, lightly mist the stenciled area. Don't use a regular spray bottle. It will get the fabric way too wet and your design will bleed.
5.) Then, after your design is noticeably lighter than the shirt, stretch it open and yank the cardboard out quickly. Put the shirt (freezer paper still attached) into a sink full of water. 6.) 6.) Rinse and peel the freezer paper off.
7.) Wring it out and then wash and dry normally.
You can also cut freezer paper in your Cricut…think of the possibilities with THAT! If you do use a Cricut, make sure to put your freezer paper on the mat dull (paper) side down and cut out your design backwards. The shiny side won't grip the mat and your design will tear.
For more information or other ideas visit:
crapivemade.com
