Embroidered Tattoo-inspired Sparrows (how-to? perhaps...)

I knew I wanted to put some sparrows on the t-shirt, but where? What method would I use? Hmm...
Taking a page from traditional tattoos I decided to put the birds on the shoulder area.  I knew I didn't want to paint them on, and wasn't ready to attempt the Beads in a Bottle crap again. OH! Embroidery! I've never done that before and this is all about practicing, right?!? Well hell. Here I go...
If you want to try embroidering something, here's what you'll need:

embroidery floss
needle
embroidery hoop
interfacing (iron-on or tear away or water soluble)
disappearing ink fabric pen or pattern transfer paper
design of some kind

*Sorry I didn't take pictures of the process, but there are several online tutorials on this stuff (I decided to blog about the t shirt after I already started all of this, so I don't know if I want to go the how-to route or the just telling you what I did like the skull a day guy)...just remember if I don't explain something well enough Google and the Library are your friends!* And back to your regularly scheduled blog!

This is the picture I found. I resized them printed the bad boys out.

I also reversed the image so the white lines were black and easier to see under the t shirt.  Then for some bizarro reason I tried pattern transfer paper. It worked, but not really. So I went back over the image with one of those purple air soluble disappearing ink pens. If you use a regular pen, make sure you embroider over the image to cover it, or use the ancient Chinese secret to getting rid of ink. If you know what it is, please tell me. No, seriously, tell me.

Now the image was on there and I had my floss colors all picked out it was time to start this rodeo...
Make sure you have enough interfacing so it's bigger than the hoop. The interfacing helps to keep the fabric from stretching whilst in the hoop.  For the blue bird I used iron on, but I didn't iron it on.


I used a simple back stitch since I was used to it from my cross-stitching youth. 

I used tear-away interfacing for the green bird. Honestly I don't know how I feel about this stuff. It's nice and stiff (what girl doesn't like something stiff?) but it's a pain to tear away. So if you use it, make sure you use towards the back of the t-shirt.  You'll see why I say this in the Athena post.
For the eyeballs I used black Beads in a Bottle paint instead of a french knot. Just make sure you don't iron over the paint like my genius self did.

Edgar Allen Poe painted stencil how-to (sort of how-to lol)

Continuing with the Raven theme I decided to do Mr. Poe himself. But how? Since I'm not that great at drawing I scoured the internet and came across this beauty.


by iamwickedstupid

I cut out the stencil on posterboard (since I had it laying around) with an X-Acto knife starting at his eyes. While cutting it I made sure I had a self-healing mat so I don't cut through anything I didn't want to. If you don't have a self-healing mat then a thick piece of corrugated cardboard will suffice (you can get it for free from the grocery store!). Make sure you turn the piece as you need it.   Here's the stencil...

The only point of caution is to watch out for thin spots, especially if you use paper-y type stuff for the stencil.


You can reinforce the thin spots with tape.

 Just make sure you slide the stencil around horizontally and don't hold it vertically if you have thin spots in your stencil as it will cause it to tear.

Now that I had it all positioned and taped in place I whipped out my fabric paint and fabric brush (don't use brushes for regualr art as they are too weak. Fabric brushes are stiff and deliver the paint to the fabric a lot better. (If you don't have a fabric brush, then you can use a sponge brush, or even a make-up sponge.) I used Polymark Bright Red Shiny dimensional fabric paint.  I started dobbing the paint around the edges of the stencil.

Once you have the paint down around the edges of the stencil you can lift it off the fabric.

And fill in the rest. If you think you're too sloppy then you can leave the stencil on, but make sure you lift it off as soon as you're done!

Finished product!

Quoth the Raven...(Poetic stencil how-to)

I was having a time deciding what the heck to do next.  I came around to my favorite poem, "The Raven." But how can I apply that to a t-shirt? Something came to me about words in a stencil. Alas another use for the fabulous Tee Juice fine line pen!
I found a basic outline of a raven and printed it out on regular paper. I cut out the raven shape and decided where to put it. I decided on back left upper shoulder area with the bird facing towards the center of my body. I copied the part of the poem where the raven shows up making sure I overlapped the edges of the stencil like so.

I made sure I continued the wording even through the legs so it didn't look like I jumped around.

And here's what it looked like after I lifted the stencil...


Since I overlapped the edges it kept the shape of the stencil better than just starting at the edge.



close up

So if you have a favorite poem, why not copy it onto your own t-shirt?

Beads in a bottle?

I know what you're saying. "Another effing skull?" Yeah, I like skulls so there will probably be a few on here.

Next I tried this stuff called Beads in a Bottle by Tulip. I went crazy one day cause they were on clearance at Michael's. What it is is paint that rounds by itself to make it look like a bead instead of pointy Madonna boobs. Well it doesn't quite look like a bead, it looks like little dobs of paint. And it takes practice. So here's how it came out...

I used the pewter color, but as you can tell all of the "beads" are not the same size. And some of them ran together and some came out wonky. If you do try this stuff all I can say is practice with it. A lot.