May the 4th be with you: the Star Wars Pillow

The Star Wars Day

Dating back to at least 1979, on the day Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain’s first woman prime minister. Her party took out a newspaper ad in the London Evening News that said “May the Fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations.”[1]

Typical festivities consist of Star Wars-loving friends getting together, and viewing the movies or series. Lightsaber fights and star wars gaming may occur in concurrence or as an alternative to TV viewing. Now, this mostly happens in America (and Canada?), and if I wasn’t a blogger I’d probably know nothing about it. BUT, as a mom of two boys, one of whom is 5 and (sometimes unfortunately) has a mind of his own, I am also someone who for a while now is part of the Star Wars mania.

For someone who’s never seen a Star Wars movie P has a pretty good idea about whom he and his friends like and want to be. And while they are very into the good and evil subject and most want to be Luke when they grow up, when it comes to ‘wearing’ Star Wars the 3 contenders are Darth Vader, Master Yoda and R2D2. So, when our birthday season started in early March our Star Wars workshop began too.

P’s friend explaining holograms to him: Look, and these are holograms, they are unbeatable. You know what would be cool? If Darth Vader hologram and Yoda hologram had a fight and none of them could win…, wouldn’t that be awesome?

That 5 year old little genious is only 3 days younger than Pavle, and I made him a pillow (or two?)

We just couldn’t decide whom he would like more, so we decided it is best to keep his options open too and decide based on his mood which side to use:

THE YODA SIDE

and the DARTH VADER SIDE:

I have since made T-shirts like this, and more pillowcases. Since I don’t have a Silhouette Cameo (crying irrationally) I need to use the oldie but goodie stencil making method, cutting with an exacto knife. To make my life a little easier I have long discovered that the best stencils for this method are Pumpkin Carving Stencils. There is nothing you can’t find in the form of Pumpkin Carving Stencil (I’ve recently done Angry Birds too, yellow and red). Pumpkin Carving stencils are simplified so you could carve them into the pumpkin, as the name suggests, which makes cutting a little easier. To make it even more convenient and less messy, I use freezer paper. Freezer paper is not available in Hungary (and many other European countries for that matter), at least not in your regular stores but you can get it from Amazon (I use Reynolds Freezer Paper). It is paper with a waxy finish on one side. Before I got the real thing I actually used butcher’s paper. In bigger stores they actually might give it to you for free. The thing to keep an eye on, is that it is waxed paper, not the one with a plastic bag layer stuck to paper (that one won’t work).

So, when I printed the Pumpkin carving stencils (find Yoda and Darth Vader) I cut it out together with the freezer paper.

When you are done with the cutting the magic of freezer paper starts. You just take your freezer paper stencil, put it on the garment of your choice waxy side down and iron it on. It will stick to the fabric like a sticker which means you can do your colouring without the fear of the stencil moving. When paint is dry you just peel it off and you get your perfect stencil, no mush. It will leave no residue on your fabric whatsoever. You can actually reuse the freezer paper a few times, especially if your design is not too detailed and your paper pieces are not too thin so they would tear.

The secret of my Yoda above is, IT GLOWS IN THE DARK. I used green Leeho Glow in the dark fabric paint(bought it at Auchan, pretty reasonably priced). I was sceptical of the glowing effect, but it does glow, and it is pretty awesome. All the kids thought so!

May the 4th be with you, if you try this one out:)

UPDATE: If you happen to want to make a stormtrooper with a bow tie visit Girl Like The Sea for a stencil and some adorable photos.