Red Fri Yay! T-Shirt

It’s been a little while since I stenciled a t-shirt. I took a side route and tried out heat transfer vinyl, and while it was fun, and I do have a lot of ideas swirling around in my mind on how to take advantage of that method, it does have a drawback to my beloved freezer paper stencil trick.

The issue is color. If you want to have multiple colors of HTV for your projects, you have to commit to a roll of each, and they are more expensive than a tube of fabric paint.

This project is actually one of my first Fall crafting projects. August starts pre-season football, which means the real start of the season isn’t far off. In Kansas City, the Friday before the first home game is a big deal. They call it Red Friday, and there are pep rallies, charity events and a big celebratory feel about the season that day. Most fans continue to wear red on Fridays throughout the season.

My workplace is business casual, with jeans and t-shirts and sneakers reserved for Fridays. I saw a meme once that said “Friday – my second favorite F word” and that really describes me. The only thing is I really find the “Fri Yay!” spelling even more attractive.

So to bring this all together, I’ve decided to paint a Fri Yay! shirt specially designed for Red Friday.

I’ve shown this method before, but here are the highlights if you are new:

First choose your design. You’ll want something that doesn’t have a ton of details because stenciling is easiest when the design is big and bold. I’ve created this design (and added it to my Etsy store) with a special hand lettered technique which makes it even easier to stencil. I’ve been super careful to not include any enclosed parts of letters (like the ones normally found in the “a” “o” “p” etc.). Those are tricky to cut for a stencil because they drop out, and you have to keep track of them and hand place them before painting.

I use freezer paper for my stencil material; some crafters like actual stencil material, but that would involve a separate trip to the craft store, and I like the fact that freezer paper actually can be used for more than one thing. If you haven’t seen this before, it’s not wax or parchment paper – the box actually says Freezer Paper and for some reason, it usually is way down low on the shelves in the wraps and bags aisle. Also, the box is super oversized so I find it hard to store in my 1950s small kitchen.

You can either print out your design and put it under the freezer paper and then hand cut the paper with an Xacto knife, or you can use a cutting machine like a Silhouette or Cricut to do the work. Either way, you want to make sure that the design is cut so that it reads correctly when the shiny side is down. For me, that means I put the paper side down on my mat for the Silhouette, and I need to mirror the type before cutting.

I get the best results using the “Vinyl, Glossy” material setting on my Silhouette, although I change the Force to 12 to get a little more pressure when it cuts. One more trick – put a box around the image so that it will be cut perfectly even and then it will be easier to place straight on your shirt.

Once you’ve cut and weeded the design, you’ll want to iron the front of the t-shirt to eliminate the wrinkles where the painting is going to happen..

Iron the freezer paper stencil to the shirt, and then put a piece of cardboard (a cereal box works great) between the front and the back. Paint quickly, but carefully – you don’t want to push paint under the edges of the stencil. That will result in fuzzy edges, but in reality, you can’t seem them from normal viewing distance.

I like to remove the stencil when the paint is just barely dry, and then let the shirt air dry overnight. I heat set mine with an iron, and then turn it inside out to wash and dry.

I’m all set for the season to start! Pin this so when you are ready to make your own Fri Yay! Shirt you’ll have it.

It’s totally OK to make it in your team colors, or if you don’t follow football, just make it in your favorite shirt color to celebrate the beginning of the weekend!

This post will be linked up at some of these great link up parties.