Stencils Before Dinner

Iris and I accomplished alot one evening while Mark cooked dinner. I set out some t-shirts, stencils, foam brushes, fabric paint and dishwashing gel. Iris went straight for the Iris stencil and colored it exactly like the example pictured in the stencil book. I let it dry overnight and then heatset it by ironing it from the back with a paper towel to protect the ironing board. The shirt has been worn and laundered several times and it looks pretty much the same as when she applied the paint.



I used the gel dishwashing detergent (Target house label, like the t-shirts) to discharge a leaf design. I should explain that discharge means to remove the the dye with the bleach in the dishwashing gel. Only dishwashing gels with bleach will work. The liquid stuff will just run right off while the gels stay put where you want them. Then I made a "shadow" using fabric paint. I tried to heatset the fabric paint with a regular blow-dryer because I don't have a heatgun at home. (Come to think of it, I haven't worked in a lab with a heatgun in over a decade.) I then put the shirt in a bucket of water with spoonful of bleach stop and swished it around. I threw the shirt in with the next load of laundry a day or so later.

[Yeah, we eat on a faux snakeskin tablecloth that I made from 2.5 yards of vinyl found at SAS fabrics.]

The hair dryer was too wimpy to set the paint as most of the "shadow" washed away. I actually like it better with the faint "shadow" than the brighter original.



keywords: crafts, Iris, stencil, paint, discharge dyeing