Little Kunoichi stencilled tee

A friend of A had her birthday today. Last year she was the recipient of the Moon Bunnies skirt and headband, and so this year I thought it would be fun to make her something again.

This little friend happens to do Taekwondo and ages ago, when I bought Sanae Ishida's book Little Kunoichi; The Ninja Girl, I had bought an extra copy knowing that I'd save it for her birthday.
 

Around lunchtime I had the idea that we could stencil Little Kunoichi onto a t-shirt. The idea was given the thumbs up from A, and so we headed out to the fabric stash to find a suitable bit of fabric.

I had just the right blue/grey colour for the t-shirt and there was one long sleeved t-shirts worth of fabric left. A bit of purple lightweight jersey was perfect for some shoulder frills.

The beauty of freezer paper stencils is that once the image is traced and the stencil is cut, you can let the kids do most of the painting as it doesn't matter if you go "over the lines"

And yes, as far as I'm concerned a plastick-y princess costume makes a perfectly suitable art smock!

Once A had done the bulk of the solid colour work, I let the paint dry while we ate a late lunch, then I added the details over the top free hand.

Then, that evening I ironed the heck out of the paint to set it, and then sewed up the t-shirt after the kids had gone to bed. Voila, from an idea at lunchtime to a t-shirt just before midnight - with all the necessary play, housework and meal time breaks fitted in too.

The pattern is the Oliver + S School Bus Tee, size 5 width with size 6 length (it's what I had already traced that seemed about right).

I added the shoulder frills by cutting a rectangle of fabric, folding it in half and then sewing gathering stitches along the raw edge. The gathering stitches curved towards the folded edge at each end. The ruffle was gathered, basted to the sleeve with a zig zag stitch and then the sleeves attached.

It was A's idea to add Kunoichi's pet ninja rabbit and I'm so glad she suggested it. How cute is that bunny?!

The kids have decided that no gift is complete without a Schleich animal from the local toy store, so a little dappled pony was added to the pile and the gift was complete.

I hope she likes it!

P's birthday is coming up soon and I seem to have created a mini tradition of stencilling his favourite "thing of the moment" onto a t-shirt for his birthday. Stay tuned for a Pokemon t-shirt stencil, and this time I might take some more detailed pictures for stencilling tips. If you sew for kids and haven't tried a freezer paper stencil yet, then I hope I'll inspire you to give it a go!