(diy tutorial) hand dyed & freezer paper stencil onesies

Many friends have asked me to tutorial this, so this one is for them. These hand dyed & freezer paper stencil onesies make great baby shower gifts. I usually make a coordinating headband to match if it’s for a baby girl. Oh and I totally disregard the directions on the Rit bottle, because who needs directions! Really though, I have a 2 year old running around my house and I don’t have time to stand at the sink mixing for half and hour. This works just as well, I just set my alarm to beep every 10 minutes so I don’t forget to stir. Freezer paper totally rocks and if you’ve never worked with it before, you’ll be addicted to making your own stencils after this! By the way, the owl image I used is actually a pumpkin stencil.

Materials

Rit Liquid Dye
Spoon
Onesies
Permanent Fabric Paint
Freezer Paper
Exacto Knife
Pencil
Stencil or Image
Stencil Brush
Iron

Instructions

Step 1: To hand dye your onesies, fill your kitchen sink halfway with hot water straight out of the tap. Poor half a bottle of Rit dye and mix well. Immerse onsies in dye and stir every 10 minutes for an hour. Rinse thoroughly under cold water. Place in washing machine, do a cold rinse and then a regular wash with mild detergent. Hang to dry. Note: You may want to wear gloves for this, I just kept my hands away from the dye as much as possible.

Step 2: Print out image or stencil and trace onto freezer paper. Cut image out using an exacto knife, making a stencil.

Step 3: Iron freezer paper stencil onto the onesie.

Step 4: Using a stencil brush, fill in stencil with permanent fabric paint. If needed, add a second coat.

Step 5: Wait until dry to peal off freezer paper. Set paint according to bottle (some require an additional ironing).

Step 6: Experiment with different colors and images! Trust me, this is addictive!