All the cool kids are doin' it.

I've been reading a lot about freezer paper stencils lately. It looks so fun. When Frankie was probably in 3rd or 4th grade, I did some painting on fabric, but I drew the designs on and used craft paint and some kind of additive that made it flow nicely onto fabric. It was during my kind of folk arty phase, where I did a lot of wood painting etc. Ew. Now that I really think about it, it was around when I was 40, because for my 40th birthday my mom bought me a scroll saw. Yikes, that's 12 years ago my friends, and most of you were probably in high school. Maybe college.. And Frankie, 2nd grade, MAYBE. Probably 1st. But as it is with us old folks, I digress. I hope I can stay awake for this whole post. I should get some Geritol, which again, just shows how darn old I am because do they even make Geritol anymore? No.

Lets get back to my freezer paper stencil project shall we? I was interested but it wasn't till I saw this this on Jennifer's blog that I really wanted to get in on the action. Frankie and I had seen a lot of cute clothes at a darling boutique that had silver paint details that we loved. Jennifer was super nice and told me the paint she used. Frankie and I scored some bargain jeans at Ross and I started thinking about what I wanted to do. A lot of the stuff we'd seen had skull designs. Very fun, Very Tarina Tarantino, who we love.

In the meantime, PIQF comes along and I find this cool Day of the Dead fabric. I grabbed a fat quarter for inspiration.

One day I'm bored and think gee, I bet I could use this skull for a freezer paper stencil. (Old people talk to themselves, a lot.) I am not that good at the visualization of negative images, lets just start with that. Jennifer was like a genius when she did that tiger because WOW. Did you see that? Anyway I didn't have the paint she recommended yet but I remembered an article from the Fons and Porter quilt magazine about using liquid dishwashing detergent to bleach jeans. I made my stencil, a primitive not that cool version of the original. I ironed it on to the jeans and glopped on the dishwashing detergent and let it dry. Then I laundered the jeans. Oh, and I put a piece of cardboard into the leg of the jeans to make sure the detergent didn't seep through. That's probably obvious but I put it in so you don't think I'm lame.

Here are my results! Frankie and I are thrilled with them. I'll probably think about doing some more to these jeans but for now she can wear them for some Halloween type fun. So thanks again blogging friends for all the inspiration. And thank you Jennifer, for the paint information. I found a place to get that Exciter Pack! And I can't wait.