Stylish T-Shirts in 15 minutes (plus free applique patterns!)

With the first heat wave, I realized that the time has come again. You know, when you realize (yet again) that kids grow fast. Really fast. Every season we need to change their whole wardrobe, and with three kids now, it's not becoming any easier (or cheaper). So we headed to the store to find out (again!) that prices in Israel today are just crazy. A simple printed t-shirt goes for the equivalent of 13.5 US$, kind of crazy, don't you think?
So we decided that in order to be able to buy clothed for the three of them and still have money to buy food for next week, we're going to have to compromise. So we got plain t-shirts that were on sale - five shirts for 100 Shekels (that's around 27 US$).
But plain t-shirts are just that. Plain. Which I think is a bit boring. So I decided to upcycle them. Fifteen minutes work on each shirt got us the perfect shirts for the kids, and we still had some money left to buy pizza...

How?
That's how:

You'll need 
Shirt (dah!)
Fabric scraps
Heat'n Bond Lite
Iron
Sewing Machine

Draw or download an applique pattern. Feel free to use this file, that I prepared, with a few patterns that can upgrade any shirt. Scroll down to see some examples.

Cut your pattern, pin to a piece of Heat 'n Bond and to the fabric scrap.

Before cutting it...

And after...

We're done with the pattern. I recommend saving it in a sheet protector, so that you can easily use it again when needed.
Now place the piece of fabric on the Heat 'n Bond and then place on the shirt, where you want the applique to be.
Hold your iron down, without moving it, for a few seconds. Make sure it's all sealed.

Now let's sew. Why? Because you don't want to end up with a shirt looking like this -

This is what happened to me last time, when I made a few shirts and just forgot to sew this one... After the first washing, it came out like this...

So we sew.
Set your machine to zigzag stitch, you want the stitch lenght to be very short, almost like the lenght for buttonholes. Try first on a scrap, to make sure you like the result. When you're ready, just sew, slowly and carefully, especially on curves.
I like to sew using threads in bold colors, because I feel it makes the applique really stand out, but it's up to you, of course, and you can choose to use threads the same color as the shirt or applique.

That's it!
It was 15 minutes, no?

Here are some other shirt I made. You can find the patterns for all of them (and a few more) in this file.

These items from Amazon will help you get started:




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Passover 2013

Fast forward to Passover 2013 (which was only 2 months ago)... The kids got new clothes for Passover night, a festive evening for us Jews.

So big-boy, who always complains that mommy doesn't sew much for him, got a decent shirt with a cute pocket in front. He liked the shirt very much, but wasn't really cooperative when I asked him to pose for me...

The little-girl, who isn't so little anymore, got a swinging dress, her favorite these days. She won't even look on a dress, if it's not swinging properly, so I have to use A LOT of fabric when sewing for her... This dress, thank god, passed the test successfully...

And more about felt...

As I wrote in the last post, I really like working with felt. I think felt is an underestimated material, and you can use it for many many different works. Take this beautiful pillowcase, for example. Or this tutorial for felt crayon roll or these amazing pendant lamps, not to mention the wet felting technique, but we'll talk about it some other time. As I said - fun!

I chose a simple shirt that I bought for my little girl, and began decorating it using felt. I sewed a girl in front and on the back, and here it is:

Front...

...and back

And, of course, when my boy saw it, he wanted one too (and of course I was planning to make one for him anyway). But as he's the older one, he also had demands for it. I got a detailed instructions sheet, that had in it a request for a boy ("but not me") in a hot air balloon and clouds. I won't exhaust you with the smallest details (and we're talking about a 4 year-old boy), but here's what I made, to his satisfaction.