Free Full Moon Owl Stencil

I can’t believe that it’s already October 4th. and I haven’t posted a Halloween tutorial yet! I love using bleach to stencil and the eerie reverse effect is just perfect for the season. Using bleach can be a bit tricky, you’ll need to use 100% cotton fabric, synthetic fibers will not bleach. It’s also hard to know how exactly what color any fabric will discharge to, which is what makes it fun.

This project would be cute as a t-shirt or as a tote bag. The shirt that I started with flopped, BTW only spray your stencil once, if you try to do it again the bleach will get underneath and blur the image. Spraying bleach is also a bit hazardous, do not breath in the mist. You could also use a bleach pen or bleach gel for this, but I really like the way spraying give an even color.

Print the Full Moon Owl Stencil, place a large sheet of freezer paper, shiny side down over the image and trace white parts onto the freezer paper. Using an exacto knife cut out all of the white shapes. Use an iron to fuse the freezer paper, shiny side down, to the fabric. I also like to fuse a plain sheet on the inside to prevent the bleach from leaching through to the back. I recommend spraying the fabric outside. Make sure that only the design is exposed, there will be some overspray and we don’t want speckles on our black fabric. The black dye should start fading almost instantly, have a bucket of cool water mixed with about a cup of vinegar to stop the bleaching process when it gets to a color you like. Here you can see it’s starting to discharge and this is where I got impatient and sprayed it again. I did try to salvage the finished shirt, but it was to far gone. Wash and dry your fabric and it’s ready to wear. This is a shirt I previously made using a similar design, I’m hoping to give the new design a second attempt soon.

I hope you enjoy using my full moon owl stencil, but please remember it is for your personal use only. I’d love to see some of your finished projects, leave me a link :)