Bleach shirts with freezer paper stencils etched on the Glowforge

That really looks great! :blush:

3 Likes

I’ve used my Cricut to make many t-shirts like this (both ink and bleach)… LOVE IT! In fact, that’s really the ONLY thing I’ve used the Cricut for. :slight_smile: Dig the addition of the GF into the mix. Though I gotta say, etching a design for 27 minutes… yikes. (Looks great though.) Great write up!

4 Likes

Very cool!

4 Likes

Well, darn, now I have to go buy more craft supplies… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

6 Likes

Tell me about it! But I think this, and/or heat transfer, is one I really need to do. I’m thinking about the possibilities – when a new meme goes around, I can be wearing an ironic t-shirt to work the next day!

11 Likes

Thanks everyone!

Yeah! And that design’s actually not a lot of etching to do either. I’m going to work on mixing cut and etch better in my designs. For example, in the three brothers stencil, I could have etched all those tiny little holes and cut the main part out.

It’s kind of funny to think about, I’m essentially just shifting the work around–spend more time on the design to make it cut and weed fast, or more time on the cut, or more time on the weed. I hate weeding, so I’m gonna work more on the designs :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

2 Likes

This is fabulous!! The design with the triangle, how did you get the stencil transferred to the shirt with so many small peices? Or were all the small peices manually placed? :blush:

2 Likes

For the design with the triangle, I etched it so that the freezer paper was cut through and not the cardstock. Then I ironed the whole thing freezer-paper-side down to the shirt, and pulled the cardstock up. Almost 100% of the design transferred; I had to move two tiny pieces by hand. Here’s a photo while I was pulling up the cardstock:

Biggest challenge was using little enough repositionable spray to keep the freezer paper stuck to the cardstock during etching but then have it lift off after ironing. I found that just pulling it off a few times and putting it back on worked well.

13 Likes

Fascinating looking technique! (I need more time.) :grinning:

5 Likes

Great idea and clever too! Thanks for sharing.

2 Likes

It’s definitely just trading time from one process to the other. And the practical neurosis says it makes more sense to the let the machine do the work, even if it takes longer… 'because you can theoretically do something else during that 27 minutes (new designs or whatever)…

Thanks for the inspiration!

4 Likes

Dang, I don’t always scroll down to see what I’ve missed, but I’m.sure glad I did this time. Your write-up is great! This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, especially because I used to own a vinyl cutter (I still technically do, but it’s just thousands of miles away ATM). Thanks for sharing your process, give me about 6 months and I’ll give it a go :grin:

4 Likes

These both turned out great!

2 Likes

Ugh!!! That’s all I need! Another way of crafting!!! Lol. Way cool!!!

2 Likes

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s excited about this! A few more resources for people who are interested:

For people who are thinking of bleach shirts vs HTV, why not both? I made these shirts with bleach and glow in the dark HTV for my kids and I love the way they came out:

16 Likes

I just finished The Last Airbender again, what a fantastic show, even as an adult! A lot of lessons to be learned, and the comedy is gold. Korra is hard to watch, not a fan of the artstyle, or the story, but I’ll keep trucking through while I run the laser.

3 Likes

Totally agreed :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Can we use Cricut cutting mats instead of the Seklema mat ?
Are you using the repositionable spray to hold the freezer paper?
Thank you!

2 Likes

No you can’t use cricut mats because they are made of PVC from what I understand. If that’s true, lasering them can produce gases that will damage your machine.

8 Likes