A T-Shirt Craft for Boys (or Girls!)

I love Christmas. But not everyone in my household shares my zeal for the season. Me? I could watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music all year long. But to keep it special, and to appease the various Scrooges and Grinches in my family, I try to limit those things to the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's.  

Now, I am a home schooling mom. And with all my heart and soul, I DO NOT want to spend the Christmas season doing regular classes. I want to bake and create and dream and drink hot chocolate. So, I try to slip in some extra "home economics" or "art" classes in December (so I can play!)  Today, I told the kids we would be doing some acrylic Christmas paintings on canvas. Of course, my 14 year old son rolled his eyes and said something along the lines of "blehhhhh...." But I was prepared! I told him that while the others were painting, I had a t-shirt project for him. So I sent him on an internet excursion for a simple design or symbol that he would like to have on a black t-shirt. He is into the bio-hazard symbol (why, I don't know,) and he picked a variation of that. Then, we got to work.

First, I printed his symbol on a piece of freezer paper that I had cut to fit in my printer. (We later did a larger one for one of his friends, and had to piece a larger pattern on top of freezer paper. This picture is of the pieced pattern.)

Next, I gave him a utility knife (poor person's x-acto knife!) and told him to cut away the printed portions of the freezer paper, making a stencil. I laid the paper on my large glass cutting board, because I just refinished that table top!

After he had removed all the cut portions, I placed a piece of foil between the layers of the shirt, and then ironed the stencil to the front of the shirt, (coated side down, of course.) Did you know freezer paper will adhere to fabric when ironed? And you can peel it away when you need to. Very cool!

I gave my son a Clorox bleach pen. (This was a gamble, because we were working with a black shirt.) Using the fat end of the pen, he began to coat the exposed areas of the stencil with bleach gel. It is important to always try to never push the pen into the edges of the paper, but rather away from the edges.  This keeps the bleach from pushing up the adhered edge and seeping under the paper. 

Now we waited. This picture shows the bleach doing its stuff.  After about 15 minutes, there was a significant change in the color of the bleached fabric. (Timing will be affected by how colorfast your t-shirt is.) Time to rinse!

Taking the entire setup to the bathroom, he pulled away the stencil, and rinsed the bleach away with lots of cold water. After rinsing, he tossed the shirt into the washing machine and washed it normally, (on a quick wash setting, because we were impatient to see the results.) After drying, he tried it on, and viola! A professional looking garment that reflected his personality to a "t" (shirt!)  

Of course, it is nearly midnight as I post this blog, and I realize I forgot to take a picture of him modeling the finished shirt! Sorry! I'll try to tack it on later!

T-shirt (Walmart craft department)  $4
Clorox Bleach Pen    $3  (used maybe 1/3) $1
Freezer paper  $0.25

Total expense for the project, maybe $5.25.

Our next train of thought was, of course, could he sell these? I'll keep you posted! More styles coming in the future.

I love being creative. I love being frugal. It is a lifestyle I "Live By Necessity!"


P.S. Here is the late posted picture of the finished t-shirt! He is now on his fourth for friends. They will look like members of some weird malware club! My camera was glaring from the light fixture I was standing under. The shirt itself is still vivid black. Don't be deceived into thinking it looks faded.