Notes on stencil adhesive

In the AC books, they kind of gloss over the step where you place your stencil on the fabric and then spray with an airbrush.  This part is pretty critical, actually.  If the stencil is flopping around (the airbrush actually has some oomf to it!), then you end up spraying under the edges of the stencil and you lose your sharp edges. 

They suggest a spray-on, repositionable adhesive like those from 3M, often used in craft projects.   This probably works fine if you use it correctly.  However, there are some fine points!  Like, don't just spray it all over the place and get a ton on the fabric.  I did that.  Big mistake.  I was frustrated since my stencil was not being very good at staying flat, and used more than I should have.  Afterwards, my fabric was tacky - noticeably tacky.  I threw it in the wash (wanted to tone down the color anyway), and it came out still sticky and now covered in little lint balls.  !!!!  It almost looked like it had gotten tar on it. Big sad face.

I almost threw it out.  I washed it three times, with other loads of laundry, with other soaps, hot and cold.  The lint balls got more distinct and focused, but they were still definitely there.  A million little 1mm-size sticky back lint balls.  Yuck.  Then I *really* almost threw it out.

I finally decided to try one more thing - a razor blade.  And that worked like a charm.  Just scraped all the sticky lint balls off.  It is no longer tacky to the touch and I think I'm finally okay on that front.  The paint was mostly gone by this point, but still just visible enough that I was able to outline it in a ballpoint pen, a look that I liked in the books and am not at all unhappy with here.  So, all ended well eventually!