Crafty Monday: I need some new shirts...

What I usually wear is simple: black t-shirt, jeans, and 3" flip-flops (I hate being short, so I'm a fan of tall shoes). Because I like to wear black shirts, I have a ton of them. Last time I counted I had a little over 50, and now I've added two more to my wardrobe.



Stenciling t-shirts is my favorite way to make them. I have tried iron-ons in the past, but after a few washes they start looking pretty awful. Instead, I use a freezer paper stencil and paint the shirts - Jennifer from Sewhooked.org has a great video tutorial on the process. I've made so many shirts with her method and I highly recommend it.


This weekend I did two shirts. The first is a simple text heart done in a beautiful magenta/fuchsia/pink color. I've actually had the image ready to be printed and cut out for a while, just not the motivation to do it. I've been waiting for the t-shirt bug to bite me. Oddly enough, I'm really excited to wear it. It is one of the most simple shirt designs, but I love it.


The other shirt could be considered slightly "controversial" or shocking to a random person reading it. Online friends have already responded with "I'm guessing it was a sticky situation...?" "This I've got to hear!" and my personal favorite "Don't we all have one of those?" It is actually something that was said in an episode of the only podcast that I can stand listening to: Emergency Pants. Shane and Bridget are the hosts, and they are hilarious. In Episode 10 Shane asks Bridget, "Did I ever tell you my horse semen story?"


The back of this one has a design on it, which is a rarity for me. I wanted to not be the freak with the horse semen shirt (too late), so I decided to do a little promotion of my own. The pants are in a light blue and the text is in the same white color *giggles* as the front of the shirt. I was very scared of this because the lettering is small and close together. The freezer paper that I have is kind of thin (waiting for the giant roll to be gone before I buy some heavy duty kind) so I was worried that the paint would bleed together and be a blob. I used a very thin brush and painted it on carefully. I was relieved when I peeled off the stencil and saw that it looked just fine!

I do have a number of other stenciled shirts in a flickr set if you'd like to see them! :D