How versatile is freezer paper? Oh, and where is Flat Stella

This is Flat Stella...This is the message I received to go with her "A FLAT STELLA PICTURE FOR YOU TO PRINT OUT AND TAKE PICTURES WITH AND THEN SEND BACK TO ME!
My niece's 1st grade class drew pictures of themselves and sent it to friends. It is the duty of these friends to take the "Flat" version of the artist and take pictures of where it went and mail it back. So I scanned it in and sent it to some friends to print out and... here's where Flat Stella has been. If you want to join the effort of taking Stella on tour of the world, let me know and I'll send you a copy!" Ok, so I didn't really take her anyway. But I bet no-one else chopped her up and made her into a dress eh!

This is what I am making today... skip the ramble if you like. I have been on blogging withdrawal

How cute is Sophie in her new top. I know that the blog is supposed to be about craft etc, and that the picture is blurry, but she just looks so happy. Anyway, getting back to the point. My Dharma order arrived, and in it there was fabric paint, craft knives and little tiny pots to store paint that I've mixed so that it doesn't dry up. I bought the primary colours and black and white. My freezer paper arrived as well, so as you can imagine, I couldn't wait to get started.

Just so you know...This particular Flat Stella was drawn by a little girl in Germany, passed to her Uncle then to my Dad's American girlfriend, who happens to live in Germany. My Dad, who lives in England sent me the picture as I live in Australia and they wanted Stella to have her picture taken in as many different countries as possible. I'm sure I have over-complicated that way too much.

So, this is Stella with my Adam. He is pointing...not sure why. But this is in my home, which is most definitely in Australia :) My aim was to have it taken near a significant land mark, but with a cranky boy at the end of the school term and an even crankier baby, I though I should just get it done.

Trace Flat Stella onto the dull side of the freezer paper.

And chop her into pieces.

Choose fabric as close to the colour of the pic as possible and iron the stencil pieces onto the back of the fabric, before cutting them out.

Ok, this is a little bit backwards, but you get what I'm doing. This is before I cut her up into pieces. I painted her face on through the freezer paper.

In hindsight, I probably would have only used the freezer paper for her head as fusible webbing/interfacing is much easier to use for applique, and you don't have to remove it afterwards. Plus, you get extra stability on lightweight fabrics.

Stencils made from freezer paper. I just printed out the words, and using it as a stencil, I cut the letters out and ironed them onto the back of the dress.

I mixed a pretty mauve colour with my new fabric paint, and painted it on. It was dry in no time.

I don't have a pic of me peeling it off, as I was far too excited.

The dress is made by tracing a tee shirt of Sophie's and just making it a little longer and wider towards the bottom. The fabric from the dress is an old tee shirt of mine and the sleeves are made from fabric in my stash.

I sewed Stella on the same way that I did this

Sweet baby girl.

Brum brum...stash buster

How cool is this picture..Adam and DH did this while I was having a lie in (Sophie likes to wake me up through the night and as it was Saturday, I got a lie in YAY!). Anyway, I got up and Adam said 'look what we made for you'. Sorry that it's sideways, but I couldn't get it to turn, even though it faced the right way before it downloaded...oh well.
I had a moment of inspiration as I imagined the image appliqued onto a tee shirt. I had just the fabric in my stash to do it too... Adam told me that I wasn't allowed to cut up the picture - as if!!!

So I traced around each individual bit, holding the picture up against the window was the easiest way for me to see through

These are the chopped up bits placed over the original to make sure it was all 'hunky dory'.

I used the cut outs as templates to cut out the fabric, I used lightweight cotton drill for the applique. I applied fusible webbing to the back of each piece for stability.

To make the tee shirt, I used one of his favourites as a pattern. I didn't put the tee together 'till the end as it made it much easier.

This is the first bit - the body of the monster truck. I was going to use satin stitch around each one, but I changed my mind as I thought the fraying around the edge would look good.

Pin and sew...'Flash ahaaaaa! He saved every one of us'

Cute little windows.

Sewed the tee together and he immediately put it on... by the end of the day it had been covered in chocolate sauce, washed and put on the line. I must admit I was pretty pleased with myself as I pegged it out to dry :)