An Apple A Day

I made this applique apple tee for Ella back in August right before school started. My friend Flannery had me over for an afternoon of sewing, and this is what I made for Ella (even though she isn't even in school yet.) SO CUTE!!!

The Photoshop Action I used for this is called Sun Kissed.

It's been a busy day, so this post is pretty short--but I wanted to share this cute photo of my girl rocking her new shirt and her famous pink cowboy boots! Yeehaw!

Flowering Vine Applique T-Shirt Tutorial

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I have been wanting to make an appliqued t-shirt of my own since I have been doing so many kid versions. Target has these fabulous v-neck pocket tees that I love--they fit me well, they layer with my Yummie Tummie well, and they come in great colors. Here is the finished shirt:


Hmm? That dust on my mirror? I'm just keeping it real, folks. LOL

So to begin, pick a shirt.

Next, pick a contrasting fabric to use. Looking back at my finished shirt, I am thinking that it would look great with the flowering vine in an Amy Butler fabric. This was my first one, so to practice, I used some old pillowcase material that I have scraps of.


Next I went to istockphoto.com and searched out "flowering vine illustration" to give me some artwork from which to base my design on. Here is one that I found that I liked. You don't have to pay for it, just do a print screen and then you can blow it up on your printer if you need to.


I am decent at freehanding, so I just applied my Heat n' Bond to one side of the pillowcase material, and then drew elements of the design onto the fabric to be cut out.


First I started by laying out the vine pieces. You can see that I have that pesky pocket to deal with. I guess I could have ripped it out with my seam ripper, but I was worried about creating a great big hole.


Here's a neat trick--once I got the layout I liked, I just rolled up the shirt and took it to my ironing board to then iron the pieces to the shirt. (My board isn't wide enough for me to be able to lay it out the way I would like, so I use my dining room table.)


Here is is ironed:


Next I started to choose thread colors. I knew I wanted to use two colors, to give it an interesting look.

Then it was time to begin laying out the leaves and flowers.


Sewing the flowers was a little rough, but I like the sort of grungy, messy look. It made the whole project feel very free-spirited and not tight.


I also had these sort of bud-like flowers:


And here is a close up of two contrasting leaves:


And here is the finished shirt again, with a Yummie Tummie and leggings!

This project took me a few days--I really needed to pay attention as I was turning the shirt this way and that under the sewing foot constantly. Now I think I should look at a free motion quilting foot--some of that technique would lend itself well to a project like this!

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Fun Applique Tees for James

A few nights ago my fun friend and craft neighbor Flannery invited me over to do some appliqued t-shirts. Let's just say that after I finished the first one I was HOOKED!

The first one I made was this fun lowercase j for James. The shirt is from Target ($6) and the applique fabric is from one of Flan's husband's old seersucker shirts. (Thanks Garland!)


We just found a font that we liked in word, printed out the letters (a few hundred times) to get them the right size, cut them out, traced them on heat 'n bond that was ironed to the wrong side of the applique fabric, cut the letter out, ironed it on to the shirt and then zi-zag stitched around it!

One of the reasons I love my sewing sessions with Flan is that I learn a lot. This time I learned three important things:

1. She has a self-threading needle doo-hickey on her machine. Grrrr . . . why don't I have that???

2. Once you iron the Heat 'n Bond to the wrong side of the fabric you have to peel away some paper stuff to then affix the applique to the shirt when you iron it. (Thus "Heat" and "Bond" DUH. (Stephanie--not sure how those applique onesies I made you are holding up . . . LOL)

3. Flan showed me that if you kine up the edge of the applique with the inside right edge of the sewing foot, the zig zag stitch will perfectly overlap the teeniest bit right to the edge of the applique (see poorly-drawn diagram below)


So needless to say, after that first "j" shirt I became a sewing fool. You know how I get obsessed. Like with the Ruffle Shirts. I couldn't make just one ruffle shirt. OH NO. I had to make 8. Well, it was no different this time. I made four shirts for James, one for Ella, and two for my youngest nephews.

Here is a #4 shirt for James (I was pretty happy when he asked if he could wear it on his first day of school!)


Remember the 80s Solar System curtain panel fabric project? Well I made a shirt from that, too!


Here are some shirts I made for my littlest nephews, Garrin and Matthew and one for James. I found these long -sleeved t-shirts at Old Navy for $6.


I found this great tough-guy but still cute for a little boy fabric for the appliques. Just look at that precision stitching. I know! I can't believe it either!


Here's James on the first day of school in his #4 shirt. I just love that I made him something special that no one else had!


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