Harry Potter Excitment and Two T-Shirt Tutorials

Oh my gosh I’m literally anxious with excitement. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep it was like I was a kid the night before Christmas or the first day of school (but with out the bad anxious feelings). We went to a geek pub quiz and they had a Potter round that I rocked and it totally built up my already high level of excitement eeeeee!

Here are a few (nope not all) of my Potter wearables. The bottom two are shirts that I altered. It’s my quickest way to alter t-shirts. It’s good for shirts where there print is high up close to the neckline.

T-Shirt Altering Directions

1. Neckline: carefully cut off the collar. if you do it right the depth it’ll be like the red dragon shirt. If you accidentally catch some extra fabric you may have to cut it deeper and it’ll look more like the gryffindor shirt which I also really like but just be careful. If you want it more like the gryffindor shirt I’d cut the collar off try it on and then carefully trim extra.
*please note* since the neck is unfinished it will stretch so before you go cutting after the initial cut TRY IT ON because it looks like it didn’t change much but the fit will be a lot different.

2. Sleeves: option 1- Next you want the sleeves to go up diagonally on your arm. The diagonal is way more flattering than cutting straight across like most tees naturally  cut. You can lay a girly shirt with good sleeves on top as a guide if you’re nervous. (the edge will be unfinished and end up rolling a bit in a cute way like the gryffindor top -I also made a little snip in the top middle edge of the sleeves for a little detail)
2. Sleeves: option 2- If you are comfortable with a sewing machine better yet a a serger or know how to sew on knits this is another option. I cut off the sleeve along the seam that is attached then I cut off the diagonal of the sleeve and sew it back on (right sides together, sew around and then you flip the sleeve out and it should work). This will be like the red dragon shirt leaving the finished sleeve end.

Freezer Paper Stenciling

1. Pick your design and cut it out of freezer paper (this is like wax paper but the wax is only on one size). You want the shinny side down so consider that while positioning. I used my cricut and put the shinny side on my mat when I cut things but you can use a silhouette or even an exacto knife and put a print out under the freezer paper to trace.
2. Iron the stencil on your shirt (or bag or whatever). Shinny side down. Be anal about this make sure you do a good job getting all the edges. This is the step that I worry about most.
3. With a board or paper in between your shirt layers Use fabric paint (I got mine at joanns and michaels) and a foam brush and apply the paint. I blot and smoosh as opposed to brush.  Don’t go too heave at once just keep on blotting and adding a little paint at a time.
4. Next you pull off the stencil. I like to wait about an hour. It will still be wet so be careful not to touch the paint and not to touch the wet stencil to spots on the shirt.
*my sister’s and friend linda’s shirts bled a bit and both of theirs had a lot of paint on the board in between the layers so I think they maybe did theirs too heavy/didn’t iron enough. But really I’m not positive why it happened so I’d practice on an old shirt or junk fabric to get the hang of things.

UPDATE: I have used this technique SO many times and I know sometimes reading different versions of the same technique helps. So if you’re still confused check out this post that I wrote more recently with many big pictures. Here’s my New and Improved Freezer Stenciling Paper Instruction Post.

Here is a link from Panjo that I found really helpful.
And if you click on any of my photos it’ll open them bigger so you can see better.

Let me know if you try any of these out!