Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Birthday Applique Shirt



My baby is turning 2 this weekend. I know I should be excited, but I'll be honest and tell you that I'm very sad. He is my baby, my last one. Two sounds like a toddler... like a little boy, not like a baby anymore. Anyway, we decided against having a party and are instead inviting his best friend over for pizza and then taking the whole family to see Thomas the Train. I still want to make the day special for him, so I've been doing some crafts in his honor.

The first was a birthday shirt. Last year I spent $15 on a special birthday shirt and during his party the embroidery started to unravel. I was very disappointed and decided I would make it myself this year. Using the same technique as with my daughter's tank top, I just did a simple applique.



There are tutorials all over the web but I wanted to share a tip with you. Cut the applique a bit larger than your stencil so that you can snip the edges and get that messy look once it's been washed.



Here you can see that I had machine-stitched following the stencil line. After washing the shirt I decided that I wanted more green so I got some embroidery floss (leftover from another project) and hand-stitched around the same line.



I love the way this shirt came out and it only cost $3. I got the plain green shirt at Walmart for $3 and I had everything else at home. Yippee!



I am linking to the following parties:

Works-for-Me-Wednesday, Show & Tell and:

Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden Creations by Kara
 http://www.thethriftyhome.com SYS Thurs

5 comments:

Trish D said...

Super cute! I keep debating about making some simple appliqued shirts for my daughter - thanks for the idea about the "messy" edges :)

Crystal said...

Very cute! My little one turns two in a few weeks and I'm also pretty sad about that.

Also thanks for stopping by my blog. The bags look good in the pillow but its kind of loud and feels crunchy. I like it for a pillow that is only going to be out for a few weeks but if it was longer then that I wouldn't do it.

Crystal

Unknown said...

I love it! You are super crafty : )

Maria@ChicaBellaCrafts said...

This is cute, my boys are so proud of their age when they turn one year older. My 7 year old is just excited that he'll be turning 8 soon, maybe I'll make a 7 3/4 one for him. I can just see his excited little face when I make it for him. Can't wait, thanks for this easy and creative idea.

seven thirty three said...

I love the frayed edges. Very cute. :)

I made something similar for my little guy when he turned two - I did a robot applique with the #2 on its belly.