Spending Money to Save Money

Do you ever find yourself doing that? Like the time I had a leftover (stale) loaf of artisan bread that I paid $2 for in the first place, so in order to avoid letting it go to waste I spent $5 on cream and eggs to make the most delicious bread pudding ever?

In this case, Number One Son got stains on a couple of his favorite $5 t-shirts when they were still quite new. I had read about freezer paper stencils on Angry Chicken (thanks Adriana!), so I was eager to try that method and salvage the t-shirts from the Goodwill pile. Of course, I didn't have any fabric paint on hand, so I had to go out and buy some. And of course, there wasn't a single color that would "go" with both t-shirts, so I had to buy two containers of paint at $5/pop. Plus freezer paper. BUT, I figure I can use the paint on other projects, right? And the freezer paper (which was really cheap per use), too?




To make my stencils, I found images on the Internet and printed them out in the size I wanted for the t-shirts. Then I used transfer paper and a ballpoint pen to get the outline onto the matte side of the freezer paper. Then I cut out the design with an exacto knife, and ironed it onto the shirt. I also put an uncut piece of freezer paper on the other side of the area to be painted, to keep it from bleeding through. Then I put on a couple of coats of the paint, letting it dry in between, and carefully peeled off the freezer paper. Then (and this is very important) I heat-set the designs with a hot iron. Do not skimp on this part--one of the designs wasn't as set as it could have been, so it left a ghost image on the back of the t-shirt the first time it was laundered.