Friday, June 24, 2011

It's Your Birthday, You deserve a T-Shirt!


My son was SO excited when I told him I would make him a birthday shirt.  I had seen this great idea from  MADE, and have been waiting for a great way to use it.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures along the way, but it was pretty simple.  Here is what I did:

First get a t-shirt.  I found mine at Hobby Lobby.  They are $3--but this week, they are half off.  It doesn't get much better than that!  The birthday boy wanted a muscle-shirt, so we had to alter it a bit, but that was easy.  Simply cut the sleeve right along the sleeve seam (leaving the actual seam attached to the shirt).  Then fold the seam in, and sew it down.  And, you will probably be better than me and sew it with a matching thread color.  I didn't have orange, so I used white.  I know, kind of lame.


Now, for the big "5".  Print out the number/letter/shape of what you want on the shirt.  Take some jersey knit fabric-- I used a kids turtle neck shirt I bought on clearance for $1. Trace your pattern onto the fabric, and cut out--use 2 layers of the material.

Pin really well onto your shirt.  Sew around the edges to keep it in place.  Then you can start hand-stitching.  I used an embroidery loom to keep it tight and embroidery floss for the stitching (3-ply).  Start stitching.  This is really easy, but I must admit it took kind of a while.  So take it to swim lessons, or the park, or grab a video from redbox.

I love how it turned out--and the birthday boy loves it too.  I think that is the best part!

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