Thursday, January 19, 2017

Quick Craft: DIY "Honorary House Elf" Apron

Remember the House Elf apron I made for John to wear during our Potter Christmas Party? It really works for any time of year, so I thought I'd share the templates in case any of you'd like to make your own.

But first... 

PHOTO SHOOT TIME.

 Werk it, John!

Aw yeah GQ!

Um, I think we got it, thanks...

No, really, THAT'S GOOD.

Aaaand SCENE.


What's fun about this is you can use any color apron, so... house colors anyone? Hmmm?

Plain aprons can be hard to find - John searched all over town before finding this one at Bed Bath & Beyond - but I found some cute shortie style ones over on Amazon Prime for less than $10.

Best of all, there are over 20 colors to choose from!

So, once you have your apron, download these graphics I put together in Photoshop:


 And this Dobby outline:

(This silhouette is all over Google, so I'm afraid I don't have an original source. Give a shout if you know it!)

Print all 3 images at 100% on heavy card stock, then cut them out using a craft blade. Remember to be careful with the Os and Rs in "honorary house elf"; the centers will fall out unless you add some paper bridges to keep them in place.

I recommend a light dusting of spray adhesive to stick the stencils down - it helps keep the letter edges stuck firmly to the cloth - but you can also tape the stencil down with masking or painter's tape.

 For paint, either pounce on fabric paint with a stiff brush, or blast it with a spray version.

Peel off the stencil, touch up any areas with a brush, and you're done!

[UPDATE: Aha, some crafty ninjas in the comments are pointing out it'd be even easier to print these on iron-on transfer paper. Good call! I... wish I'd thought of that. :D]

As always, if you give this a go, please share pics over on the Epbot FB page; I love seeing what you guys make!


***

Now let's announce some winners from last week's art roundup!

My Wildcard winner is Atera
The winner of the Fox TARDIS poster is Justin Chartrey
And the winner of the Travel TARDIS poster is Kristi Pitts!

Congrats, you three, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

19 comments:

  1. Okay been a long day but thought the caption under John's first photo said "Twerk It" LOL

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  2. That's what I'M talkin' 'bout-- sell the garment, bitch! ;)

    Cheers, thanks a lot,

    Storm the Klingon

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  3. Is it weird that I think your backyard is a PERFECT backdrop for just about any fashion shoot? Probably not if you knew the vast messiness of ours... :)
    Pinkie Welborne, 16
    Indiana

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  4. Another fun craft! Maybe one at my level of expertise too...

    Hope the photo shoot was as much fun as it seems! :o)

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  5. Oooo, you could also print those out on one of those iron-on transfer sheets! (I've had terrible luck with painting fabric, so I tend to avoid it if I can lol)

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  6. You can also make stencils from freezer paper and iron it on the fabric. It comes right off.

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    1. I'm going to second freezer paper! You can print your design right onto the matte side, then use an exacto to cut out your design. You iron it onto the fabric & "pounce" your paint onto it! I also bought some fabric medium and you can mix that with any acrylic paint and turn it into fabric paint. Just make sure you heat set it before you wash it.

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  7. In the past, I've found plain aprons at Michael's. Also, this would be a LOT easier if you just print the images on to iron-on paper (also available at Michael's or your favorite craft store). I did this to make a Starbucks apron several years ago, for a low-effort Halloween costume.

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  8. Fabulous apron - is it just me or does John look like the good-natured love child of Sean Astin and James Corden? And I mean that in the most non-creepy, I'm a huge fan of everyone involved, kind of way.

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    1. and his Carpool Karaoke would be lines from movies!

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  9. Love this!!
    You can print on freezer paper, too, which can be ironed on to fabric.

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  10. Susanna Sharp-SchwackeJanuary 19, 2017 at 3:00 PM

    Iron on transfer paper is EXPENSIVE.

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  11. iron on transfer paper works fine for light fabrics, but if you want something for a dark fabric, I recommend using carbon transfer paper (I'll link to an example because it's called different things). They usually come in a pack with different colors, including yellow, white, black, etc. You lay the paper down on the fabric, put the image you want transfered on top of the paper, and trace on top of your image with anything kinda pointy, like a pencil or pen or the non-brush end of a paintbrush or something. When you finish, you lift it all up and have the image on the fabric. It's not permanent, though. You then have to go over the image with fabric paints or fabric markers or whatever. It'll rub off with time or wash off with a little soapy water. I use this kind of paper when I am embroidering on a dark fabric and need to transfer an image to embroider.

    Link to the tutorial that taught me about this awesome paper and how to use it: http://sublimestitching.com/pages/how-to-dark-fabrics-1

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  12. Very cool! john (thoJ), those pictures show how incredibly sweet and adorable you are! Jen, you picked a good one! :)

    ~Zippy

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  13. Yes, freezer paper would work beautifully for this if you're planning on making a stencil because then you can iron it on and skip the spray adhesive, and you can cut out the centers of the letters and stick them on too. I've made a ton of shirts like that and it always turns out nice and crisp.

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  14. freezer paper works great for stencils. it is easy to cut and you can iron it to the fabric(waxy side down) so there is no seepage.

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  15. This is SO cute! I'm think I'm going to make a couple mini ones for kidlets!
    Without sounding like an advertisement, have you guys thought about getting a Silhouette Cameo or similar machines? I bought one ages ago for cutting out quilting appliques, but I use it for EVERYTHING crafty. (I'd say about 80% of my harry potter tree had some part of it cut with the cameo, for instance.) This would be something I'd reach for it first, either for the stencil in cardstock or the stencil material, or my first choice as heat transfer material. I do personalized goofy t-shirts as gifts so I have the scraps that are perfect for little decal sized things like this.

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  16. You can frequently find plain aprons at kitchen supply stores (especially the kind that cater more to pros and less to the Williams Sonoma crowd) and sometimes craft stores.

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  17. I borrowed my friend's cricut cutter for some Christmas gifts and this would be a perfect project for some flocked or glitter iron on!

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