I’ve been wanting to do some freezer paper stenciling for a long time, and I finally got my chance with this glasses case. Luckily I found the perfect free spectacles clipart for the project here. This case turned out so cute that it’s one of my new favorite projects.

Materials:
Materials to sew your own glasses case from this tutorial.
Craft paint (I used Martha Stewart Acrylic Metallic Paint in Gold)
Textile medium (I used Americana Fabric Paint Medium)
Freezer paper (I used Reynolds Freezer Paper)
Sponge brush
X-acto knife
Printer
Ruler
Fine paintbrush (optional)
Cutting mat (optional, or a thick piece of cardboard)

Methods:
1. Cut out the fabric pieces for your glasses case (8 by 4 inches) and iron. I used black quilting-weight cotton. You’re going to add the stencil before you sew anything together.

2. Cut a piece of freezer paper to standard paper size, 8 1/2 by 11 inches. Flatten it out by rolling it against the way it wants to curl, or pressing it under books overnight. Be careful not to crease it. Place it in your printer tray so that the printing will occur on the non-coated side of the freezer paper. (This depends on your printer. For one of mine I have to put the side I want printed on face down, and for the other one it’s face up.)
3. Download and print out the glasses graphic on the non-coated side of the freezer paper.


4. With the X-acto knife, carefully cut out the glasses from the freezer paper by cutting on the outside edge of the outline. Also cut out the lenses from the frames. It’s easiest to do this on a cutting mat, but if you don’t have one, a thick piece of cardboard will also work. A nice sharp blade will do the best job for this step.

5. Place the stencil so that it’s centered on one of the outer fabric pieces. With the iron on a medium setting and the freezer paper slick side down, iron the glasses template onto the front of the fabric. Use the frame of the glasses that you cut out to help you line up the lenses, and iron these on too.



You can see that I tore my stencil a tiny bit on the edge. But I just stuck a piece of clear tape over the tear after I’d ironed it on, and it was fine. Don’t iron over the tape, though, or you’ll end up with melted plastic on your fabric!

6. Mix your paint as directed on the fabric medium. Mine called for a 2:1 ratio of paint to medium. Brush the paint onto the fabric within the stencil evenly. Let this coat dry, then do a light second coat.

7. Allow your paint to dry thoroughly, then peel off the fabric paper. If you need to, you can touch up the edges of the design with a fine paintbrush.


8. Heat-set the paint by ironing it with a pressing cloth for a minute or two on high heat.

9. Now sew up the glasses case by following my tutorial.