Get Your Craft On-Stenciling onto Fabric

Ta Da - the finished valance.  Sorry I couldn't get it all in the picture.  The dining room didn't offer enough back up space, but you get the idea.

By Leslie and Laura

I know what you might think of when I mention stenciling.  I know what I always picture--my mom perched on top of a ladder, aggressively tapping paint onto a stencil only to have to climb back down the ladder, move it over two inches, tape the stencil back onto the wall and go back to the tapping.  Then, when all was said and done we had a beautiful (or not so beautiful, according to my 12-year-old-self) border around the top of our dining room walls.

Well, that's the old school stenciling; it's tired, it's bland, and it's something that could make or break a deal on House Hunters.  But, times have changed, and stenciling has, too.  It has gotten kind of a bad rap over the years and we are hear to redeem it!  Laura recently got some inspiration from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens (mentioned in this post).  There was a beautiful pillow made out of stenciled fabric and she knew she had to try it out. She bought the stencil, here and instated the help of my mom and I to create a unique stenciled valance for her dining room.  And, for the record, it was not nearly as hard as it seemed.

Here's a look into our day of crafting.

Mom and I are starting to get "into the groove" of stenciling, realigning the stencil, and reloading our sponge brushes.  In the background, baby Ella is getting into the groove of eating a snack.

Here Laura and I are starting on the second row--at this point you have to be a lot more careful when you are aligning your stencil.  You need to align two sides instead of one.  Thank goodness this stencil had "guidelines" for me to follow.  Also, even if one was slightly misaligned, it just added to the unique look of the textile.

Here's one lowly picture of me doing what took up the most time in this process-aligning the stencil.  But thanks to spray adhesive and awesome guidelines, even this wasn't that hard.

Finished fabric.  Look how long it is!  I would say it took approximately two hours and that includes washing the stencil about three times to get any residue off of it.  Not too shabby!

A closer shot of the finished fabric.  

Now, time for the valance makin'

Leslie cuts the fabric for the main part of the valance.

Laura ironing the trim for the valance. 

Didn't it turn out just amazing?  I honestly wasn't expecting it to look this good in the dining room. By the way, I'm getting new curtain rods, these rods are from the previous window coverings, which happened to be off white, pink and green.  I had to move up to something more mod and this is going to be perfect, once I get all the finishing touches in the room.  So, are you getting the itch to stencil?  Do it!  You don't have to tackle a project this large, but why not go for a pillow or a cute hand bag?  Let the test nesters know how it goes.  We'd love about any projects you've completed or have on your to do list.