Inspired by Korby’s simple tent, I set about making a play tent for my kids that I could hang from some of the trees in our backyard. This is my end result.

The kids love it, and spent all morning and afternoon playing in it, hauling their toys and books out there to read and play to their hearts content.

To make it, I took 3 twin size flat sheets I had picked up at my local thrift store (at one time or another), and a large scrap of fabric 18″ w x 30″L as a header to kind of designate the front opening, and stitched them all together on their long sides (except for the header piece which I stitched it’s short sides to either side of the front sheets). Then I folded the top edge over and stitched it to form the casing, cut a hula hoop in half and threaded it through the one part I left open when I was sewing the casing. Using several holes that Craig drilled for me near each cut end, I laced them back together with jute string and pulled them tight and knotted it off to keep the hula hoop together. It’s not a true circle anymore, closer to a teardrop, but it’s nothing that affects the function of the tent, so I don’t care.  I attached some rope to the hula hoop at four different spots and knotted them in the middle and attached a carabiner clip, then using the same rope, I tied a large metal ring to one of the branches of the apple tree in the back, so I am able to hang up the tent and take it down just as easily when needed.

 I am currently making a second one with a Care Bears sheet teamed with a solid pink, and a solid sunny yellow flat sheet for a bit of a girly-er version. These really go together quickly, and since there is only straight stitching involved this is a very easy project. The hardest part is maneuvering the yards and yards of fabric since you are working with 3 twin size sheets after all, but it’s still not that hard. Also, if you don’t want to cut the hula hoop, you could make this a bit more time intensive and make some fabric tabs that button closed and stitch them at even intervals all around the top of your sheets instead of making a casing. That way you could unbutton the fabric part and toss it in the wash if you ever needed to. I may try that version another time, but for now, this is it, I just wasn’t feeling patient enough that day. Sometimes I just want to keep it fuss free and as simple possible, and for me this was that way. Definitely not fancy, but fancy was not my main objective. So there you go, a quick and easy way to whip up a fun place for the kids to escape the heat and stay cool in the shade. (Thanks again Korby!)

These were a bunch of knee high socks I bought last Fall, intending them for one of my younger girls to wear to school, but they were misplaced until recently, so I decided to put them to better use and make something for the new baby since I am due in the Winter after all. So baby legs they will be. (These will fit both babies and older children alike as I have made these for my 5 & 9 year old and they love them, so these are not limited to just babies!)  I found a great selection at Smith’s Marketplace in a 2-pack in the girl’s section for $8. I have also found that there were more knee high socks with prints and colors that would work for boys in the womens section as opposed to the girls, so make sure and look if you want to make some for your little guy.

 

You can use a serger or a sewing machine to make these, and they are totally easy and work up incredibly fast.

Materials:

-1 pair of knee high socks

-serger or sewing machine

-thread

-a pair of sharp scissors

Ok, let’s start. First, pick out a pair of either girls or womens knee high socks, they both work just as well for this.

 Lay them out flat and cut off the foot just before the “bend” starts, cutting them straight across.

Next, cut off the rounded end at the top where the toes go. Try to keep the rectangular portion in the middle about the same size as the other.

 It should look something like this when you’re done. The rectangular piece you cut out from the foot portion will become your cuff.

 

 Take the cuff piece and fold it inward onto itself, in half, wrong sides together, matching the raw cut edges up with each other. You want the right sides of the print facing out. It should look something like this.

 Slip the cuff over the cut edge of the sock, making sure that the raw edges from both the cuff and the sock match up.

 See, the sock is inside the cuff, and you just slide it up to the raw edge and even them up as best you can.

  Here are the raw edges of both the sock and cuff lined up.

 I don’t even bother to pin them, I find it easier not to when I serge/sew them, but you can pin them if it makes it easier for you, it really doesn’t matter.

 Here they are, all ready to be serged or sewn. I did one of these with my serger and one with my sewing machine so that you can see an example of both.

 I just hold the edges together and run it through the serger all the way around.

 And here it is, all done. I know it looks like the edges are all stretched and ruffled from being serged, but once the cuffs are turned out, it doesn’t matter. And after being washed once, it looks even better, so don’t sweat it.

  I stitched this one on my sewing machine using a simple zig zag stitch. I kept the aligned raw edges close to the edge of my presser foot for a guide and stitched it all the way around.

  Here it is all all stitched, and it looks pretty similar to the serged one, doesn’t it, and it too seems a bit ruffled after being sewn. Also not a big deal.

  Turn the cuffs up and you have a great little pair of baby legs for your little one that took you all of 10 minutes to make.

 Here is a close up of both cuffs. Can you tell which one was sewn with a serger and which one was sewn with a sewing machine? Neither can I.

 So there you are. Easy as can be.

 Now go crazy and make a bunch more. It took me less than 30 minutes to cut and serge all of these, and just like that I had 9 pairs of baby legs.

  Like I said, they’re incredibly fast and easy to make.

And just for a reference, the last three pairs of baby legs on the end at the right were all made from women’s knee socks (gray with rainbow pinstripes, navy & white stripe with green edge, and gray & white stripe with pink edge). The first 6 (starting from the left) were all made from knee socks from the girls section.

*Variation*-You can also use a pair of tights to make baby legs if you would like. Just cut off the foot portion the same as you would if using a knee high sock, except you will need to cut a second piece about the same size as the first cuff from somewhere on the leg portion of the tights to make a second cuff for each baby leg. So you will then sew a cuff to each end to finish them off since the tights don’t have a pre-finished edge like the socks do. This is a great way to use up outgrown tights you might already have on hand.

With the warmer weather finally here, I decided it was time to get myself in gear and make the girls some summer pajamas and nighties. I bought some plain white tank tops at Wal-Mart for $3 each along with several yards of a classic cotton print, and in no time I had them sewn up. For the nighties, I used the same basic idea from my tutorial for the long sleeved tees into nighties, cutting the tank top off at the bottom, attaching the gathered skirt to it, and then adding a ruffle to the bottom edge with the same fabric as the skirt. These work up so fast, I love it.

For the pajama pants I just used one of the simple pants patterns I always keep on hand, except I cut a few inches off the bottom edge to make them a cropped pant, and hemmed the bottom edges. Then I cut two strips of matching fabric that were about 2 inches wide and about twice the circumference of the bottom edge of the pants, serged both of the edges to finish them and stop any fraying, and sewed the short edges together, right sides together, to make a continuous circle. Then, using my longest stitch length I ran a gathering stitch directly down the middle of each one on the right side of the fabric, pulled the bobbin thread from the wrong side of the fabric to gently gather them, and evenly pinned them to the pants, wrong side of the fabric on the ruffle against the right side of the fabric on the pants, matching the bottom edges of the ruffle to the hem edge. Then, I sewed down the middle of the ruffles, using the gathering stitch as a general guide, and stitched them in place using a regular stitch length.

Haven loves them and they make the perfect summer pajama pant, as they provide very light and airy coverage for the warmer nights. In the end I was able to make 3 nighties and 1 pair of pants, with 3 more nighties and 3 more pairs of pants left to sew. Now if I can just stop obsessing about sewing cloth diapers long enough to finish them…

Ok, so I have had this tutorial written up for a while now, but I was torn as to whether or not to post it because, frankly, it really bugs me that I used Dora fabric to do this. But, I don’t have the time to do it over using different fabric or to take more pictures, so I am biting the bullet and posting it in all of it’s Dora glory. And the point was that Gracen loves Dora, and she was the one that picked it out, and as long as they are happy, that’s what really matters, right? So there you go. I also have a summer version in the works that I promise will be free of any and all obnoxious character prints, so I have placated myself with that. Also, I know that the cold weather is pretty much behind us, but I still thought this tutorial was relevant since most of you are getting ready to put away long sleeve shirts for this season, so now is a great time to put some aside for this project, make a few nighties, then put them away until the cooler weather comes back in the Fall. Nothing like being prepared!

With a bunch of long sleeve shirts that my girls had outgrown, I decided to put them to use by turning them into nightgowns. The once long sleeves had been outgrown and were too short to be long sleeves, and too long to be 3/4 sleeve. And the length of the t-shirt was too short for my girls to wear without baring their tummies much of the time, and some of the shirts had stains that just wouldn’t come out, so this was my solution. These work up incredibly fast and have become the reigning favorite for bedtime attire, with both girls, Gracen especially. Ok, so here we go.

Materials:

-about 1 yard of cotton or flannel fabric for each nightgown (you may need more or less depending on your measurements for the desired final length of your nightgown)

-1 outgrown long sleeve t-shirt

-thread to match fabric and/or shirt

scissors and/or a cutting mat and rotary cutter

measuring tape or ruler of some sort

(Disclaimer- I don’t care for commercially licensed characters on my childrens clothing, but I let my kids have their way when it comes to their pajamas, so the following nightgown is made with Dora the Explorer fabric. I apologize for the garrish print and irritating product placement, but it was what Gracen wanted for her nightgown. So there you go, and Dora it is.)

Measure from the shoulder down to where you want the nightgown to end. For the purposes of demonstration, I wanted this nightgown for Gracen to be 31 inches long total in length. So I will divide that total measurement up between the t-shirt length, the skirt length and the ruffle length to get the desired 31 inch long nightgown in the end. Remember to make sure to add in your seam allowance. Mine was about 1/2″, but you can choose whatever seam allowance works best for you.

Lay your t-shirt out flat, and remembering to add your seam allowance, make your cut.

For this nightgown for Gracen I chose to cut the t-shirt about 9 inches long from shoulder down.

I cut the bottom portion off of the shirt where I marked it. Then I cut about 4″-inches off at the hemmed edges of both sleeves (there is no perfect length to cut off of the sleeves, it’s up to you and what you would like the finished length to be), thus removing the added bulk and making room for the ruffles on the sleeves in later steps.

I cut the skirt portion from regular quilting cotton, using the full width of the fabric, 44″-inches wide, and cutting it about 22 1/2 inches long.

Then I cut two more strips, each 4 inches wide by 44 inches long for the ruffle on the bottom of the skirt.

The sleeve ruffle can be done several ways. Two options are either using the leftover t-shirt fabric, OR you can cut a third 4″x44″ strip from the same fabric you are using for the skirt and then cut it into two separate lengths that are both 1 1/2 to 2 times the length of your sleeve opening. For this tutorial I am using the leftover t-shirt for the sleeve ruffle, but I have also done it the other way with excellent results too. It’s just your own personal preference here.

I measured my sleeve laying flat, and it was 3 1/2″-inches across at the edge, which means it’s a total of 7 inches in circumference at the opening. The basics measurement for making most ruffles is to use 1 1/2 to 2 times the length of your fabric. So if you have 7″-inches you will need 1 1/2 to 2 times that number in length for the ruffle. So I will need my strips to be anywhere from 10 1/2 to 14 inches long (don’t forget to add seam allowance too) depending on how ruffly and gathered I want it to be, and I cut mine anywhere from 3 to 4 inches wide. I went with 3 1/2 inches wide for this sleeve since it was as wide as I could go with what I had left of the t-shirt. So here are my strips cut into 3 1/2″ x 10 1/2″-inches.

Placing the right sides together, fold them with the short sides lined up and even, and stitch them together with your sewing machine. I used a 1/4″-inch seam allowance here.

You now have a “circle” or “tube” of fabric. With wrong side together, fold the tube in half so that the right side of the fabric is on the outside, facing you, like so…

They should both look like this, with the right sides of the fabric showing.

With your sewing machine, and your longest stitch length, run a basting stitch all the way around. My longest stitch length on my current machine is 6. On my old one it was 4. They both work, so just use whatever your longest stitch length is. Do not backstitch at the beginning or end, you are going to need to be able to pull the thread to gather this.

Matching up the raw edges of the ruffle to the raw edges of the sleeve opening, and right sides together, match the seam on the sleeve and ruffle and pin the ruffle to the sleeve, pulling the thread up to gather as you go. Evenly space the gathers all the way around the sleeve. And I’m sorry I didn’t get more pics of this step, I meant to, and didn’t. I am a jerk.

I set my machine stitch back to a 3, and machine stitched using about a 3/8″-inch seam allowance. I stitched all the way around, and backstitched at the end to ensure my seam.

If you have a serger you can then serge that seam as well, but it’s not a necessity if you are using a knit fabric for the ruffle since knit does not fray. However, if you are using a cotton/woven fabric for the ruffle, you can either serge the seam OR us a zig zag stitch after you straight stitch it so that it will stop it from fraying and looking neat after numerous rounds in the washing machine and dryer.

Afterwards I topstitched on the outside all the way around.

Next take the my two 4″ x 44″-inch strips of fabric and with right sides together, matching the edges of the short sides so they are even.

Like so…

With a 1/4″-inch seam allowance, stitch them together at both ends, so you have a circle of fabric.

Then fold it in half, wrong sides together, and press it with your iron, all the way around.

Then, with your machine set to your longest stich once again, and making sure NOT to backstitch at the beginning OR the end, run a gathering stitch 1/4″-inch in on the raw edge, all the way around using one of the seams from the beginning as a starting and ending point.

Then take the fabric for the skirt, and right sides together, matching the sides, stitch down the length of the skirt (the selvage edge) using a regular stitch length (2 or 3). Serge or zig zag your edges. I used a larger seam allowance since I had to match up the selvage edges, so I stitched just inside of the selvage so it wouldn’t show.

At the bottom edge, fold it in half and place a pin at that point. fold it again and pin those spots as well. This should divide the bottom of the skirt into 4 evenly space sections which will make adding the ruffle easier. And make sure that the edge you chose for the bottom of the skirt works with the direction of the fabrics print. You don’t want to get your nighty all sewn together and on your little girl only to realize that all of the designs are now upside down. Not that I would know about that or anything…..ok, so maybe I know A LOT about that. But we don’t need to go into all of that now. So anyways, just make sure the bottom really is the bottom. Now, take the ruffle and fold it in half and then again, marking the spots with pins, and dividing it into quartered sections as well. Match up each of the pins on the ruffle with the pins on the bottom edge of the skirt. Then, pull up the basting thread to gather, adjusting as you go, and evenly placing and pinning your gathers all along the bottom edge of the skirt. Raw edges from the skirt and the ruffle should be even. It should look something like this…

With your machine set to a regular stitch length (2 or 3), stitch all the way around, using about a 3/8″-inch seam allowance, backstitching at the end to secure your seam. Serge or zig zag over the edges afterwards.

Topstitch all the way around the top of the ruffle on the skirt.

Setting your machine to your longest stitch length once again, sew a gathering stitch all the way around the top edge of the skirt with a 1/4″-inch seam allowance. Place 4 pins at intervals evenly spaced out so that the skirt edge is divided into 4 quarters.

Do the same to the raw edge of the bottom of the t-shirt. (I serged the raw edge of the shirt only to keep it from rolling while trying to sew it to the skirt. It is not a necessity, it was just for my own convenience.)

With skirt turned inside out (wrong sides out) and the t-shirt with the right side out, place the shirt inside of the skirt, matching raw edges.

 

Match the side seam of the skirt to one of the side seams on the t-shirt. Pin the skirt to the t-shirt  matching all of the pins.

 Pull the basting thread on the skirt to gather, and evenly space and pin the gathers of the skirt in place to the t-shirt.

Using a regular (2-3) stitch length, stitch the skirt to the t-shirt, sewing all the way around, backstitching to secure your seam. I used about a 3/8″ to 1/2″-inch seam allowance. Either works fine.

Serge or zig zag over the edges to keep it neat for washings.

 Topstitch all the way around on the t-shirt, catching the skirt seams you go to give the t-shirt added strength with the weight of the skirt now attached. And topstitching always gives it such a nice look anyways, don’t you think?

And you’re done!

Gracen was very pleased with the end result, and told me she was going to wear it forever. Not that she had any interest in modeling it for me, she just wanted to be goofy.

After I finished Gracen’s, I made a Hannah Montana nighty for Haven.

Here are several I made before Christmas, and obviously before Gracen chopped off her hair. As you can see, I used the same fabric from the skirt to make the sleeve ruffles.

On this one of Gracen’s I left off the skirt ruffle and added a square applique patch from the fabric instead on the center front of the t-shirt to cover up a stain. I just zig zag stitched all around the edges of the square with a small piece of stabilizer underneath to keep it from puckering as I sewed it on. (Haven’s snowflake applique is original to the shirt from the manufacturer.)

  As you can see by the sleeve length, this shirt still fit Haven, but it was not wearable because of a bunch of marker stains across the bottom half, so this nighty was the perfect second life for it. I used flannel for this one.

There are a ton of possibilities here. You can omit the bottom ruffle on the skirt, omit the the sleeve ruffle on the shirt, use a short sleeve t-shirt or a tank top if you prefer, and even make these into a shirt for daytime wear instead just by shortening the length of the skirt part and not using the ruffle at the bottom. It’s all up to you and what you want. There is a lot of room to really make these your own and have fun with it.

Please contact me with any questions, or if you need me to clarify any of my instructions. I tried my best to get it from my head to my blog, I can only hope it came out as clearly as I wanted. Just let me know, I am happy to help. And please email me or leave a comment with a link of any pictures of your own creations you make from this, I would absolutely LOVE to see them!

I was helping my children lay their clothes out for the next day, and we were making sure there was some kind of green evident in their outfits for St. Patrick’s Day. They didn’t relish getting pinched. I came to discover that all of my children have green in their wardrobes in some shape or form, except for Haven. I’m not sure how that happened. She does have a lot of blue, purple and brown though. Hmmm. Anyways, Haven asked me if I had any ideas to help remedy her greenless state. I did.

One plain white tee, 3 different green scraps of fabric, various clover templates in different sizes, some time spent at my sewing machine, and it was done.

 

 I just pinned each clover to the t-shirt, and stitched around each one about 1/8″ inside from the edge. Using a straight stitch also makes it easy to unpick, and I can remove the clovers at any time, and return the shirt to it’s original plain white tee status.

 This is a bonus since it would mean Haven wouldn’t have to be stuck with a holiday tee long after that holiday has passed.

 She is ready for a pinch-free day.

A friend of mine had a new baby a few weeks ago, and I had some fun making a few things for her new arrival.

The onesies worked up really fast as soon as I decided on the placement, and as you can see, they’re pretty self explanatory. And the carseat cover/tent (the neatly folded item under the onesies) was so easy it was criminal. Seriously, it was so simple to make, and something I myself would have loved to have had for my own babies.

The nursing apron/cover was also easier to make than I thought, and came together with no trouble at all. And you know that this must be ‘THE’ hot mommy item to have since Pam Beasley-Halpert on ‘The Office’ used one. So there.

I am working on the tutorials for the nursing cover and the car seat tent, but I have to tell you that I haven’t even been near my sewing machine all week, so I still have some planning and pics to take. And some sewing too. It’s just been a weird week and it’s been a bit crazy around here, so hopefully soon.

I saw this quick fix idea using reverse applique on another blog somewhere, but I can’t remember exactly where. (Heidi do you remember?) Regardless of it’s origins, I knew it would be worth my while to try it.

Thankfully, Haven was way ahead of me and had already ripped holes in both of the knees of her jeans without having to be asked. She is so very considerate of my sewing needs. I cut out a cardboard template of a heart that was large enough to cover each rip and still be centered on the knee area, traced around the template, pinned a scrap of pink print fabric underneath, and stitched all around it using my pencil outline as my stitching guideline. And why may I ask does her shirt look red in these pictures, I thought it was dark pink? Whatever.

All that was left to do was to cut away the excess denim on the inside of the heart around the edges, leaving a scant 1/8″-inch to the stitching, which will fray up a bit and look even cuter with each wash. I then handed them over to an ecstatic 8 year old girl who immediately put them on, exclaimed that I am the best Mom in the whole world, and declared herself the coolest girl in her school.

 

Next up, a boys version. Not using hearts, of course. I mean, what kind of a mother would I be stitching pink heart shaped patches on my boys jeans and sending them off to school to face every bully on the playground. Although I have been known to dress my boys in outfits akin to Little Lord Fauntleroy.

I came across a jumper of Gracen’s from last year that she had long since outgrown and it looked like it had serious re-purposing potential. And it has butterflies embroidered across the front. And it’s pink. The most important factor when considering anything to be made for Gracen. It’s her favorite color. Of. All. Time. So this will be a hit with the little one for sure.

With one cut, a little unpicking, and a few stitches with the machine, it went from this…

to this…

and ended up as this.

All I did was cut the upper bodice off at the seam where it was attached to the skirt portion of the jumper, unpicked and removed the zipper at the back, sewed the back edge seam together where the zipper was, turned down the upper edge and made a casing at the waistband, added elastic the same length as Gracen’s waist size, and I was done. A skirt was born from an outgrown jumper, in less than 30 minutes, and it’s pink. It doesn’t get much easier than that to make my little pink loving Gracen happy as a clam. Now to make a chocolate brown t-shirt cardi to go with it!

I needed a light cardigan for my daughter last week, so I grabbed a long sleeved t-shirt from her drawer that was rarely worn, and we went from this…

…to this.

(I lightened the pic since black can make showing details difficult sometimes)

I trimmed off the hemmed edge at the very bottom of the tee, cut off the bottom of the tee making it a mid-cropped length for a cardi. Then I cut that bottom piece in half into two evenly sized strips, and sewed the two strips into one long continuous piece. I then cut up the center to make my opening and trimmed the bottom edge and the neckline, rounding them and evening everything up so it would hang correctly once finished. I folded my continuous strip in half, wrong sides together, and pinned it to the raw edges all the way around and stitched it in place, and then serged it for a finished look (if you don’t have a serger it’s fine, this step is not necessary, just cosmetic). I then top stitched it so that the edging would not flip over as she wore it.

The way it came out, the seams curved inward, so it was hard to get a good shot of this laying flat, but it worked perfectly and looked great while my daughter was wearing it, which was really the point anyways.

And now that I told you it looked great on my daughter, here is this crummy picture of the cardi (but cute one of my silly girl Haven) that makes the cardi look uneven and sloppy. I promise that the hem is not uneven, my daughter was just fed up and was basically trying to bolt out the door and was not happy I was taking her picture.

I made a second one the other day, this time for my youngest daughter. I used a short sleeve t-shirt, cutting off more length from the bottom of the tee so I had a longer continuous strip, pinning the edges as before but this time giving it some small gathers as I went so that the edging ruffled. And this time I joined all of the edges of the continuous strip so it was basically a circle of knit edging, trimmed off the entire neck band on the t-shirt and ran the continuous strip all the way around the edge.

 

It turned out very cute, but again the pictures were not so great as I had a very unhappy and unwilling model. Cute, nonetheless, but still not thrilled about having her picture taken. She was slightly mollified by the fact that she is wearing her absolute favorite color. Pink. Everything is best when it’s pink in her little world. Even when she is forced to pose for pictures.

I also top stitched around the ruffle to turn keep it turned outward, otherwise it would have curled in. In the end, I thought the ruffled edge turned out far better than  the flat edging I did on the first cardi.

So I would do this ruffled edge again as I like the finished product much better. My only complaint has to do with my lack of pink serger thread. I only have white and black currently, so the white serger seams really flash and stand out as Gracen moved while wearing this. I may go back and top stitch some decorative narrow ribbon over top of the inside serged seams to cover them up and stop the numerous flashes of white thread that are so glaringly obvious every time she even so much as breathes.

Oh, and for future reference, when I made the fist cardi, I used a regular Schmetz universal sewing machine needle. For the second cardi I switched over to a Singer ball point needle as they are supposed to be best when sewing knits on your machine. For me this was not the case. My thread broke over and over again and I had skipped stitches no matter what I did as I sewed. And no amount of fiddling with the bobbin, the tension, the presser foot, or numerous rounds of re-threading ever made any difference whatsoever. It was an overall nightmare. So I switched back to my Schmetz universal needle and I stitched up every bit of the stretchy knit tee without a single problem after that. I’m still not sure what the deal was, but I will just know next time to forget the ball point needle unless I want to cry and have fits of hysteria while I sew. Just thought I would throw this out there in case anyone else has this same issue. And if you know what my have caused that headache, I am more than happy to give the ball point needle another try with any suggestions you might have. Otherwise forget it. It’s Schmetz universal for me. Period.

Many times when I am thrifting, I will find an awesome shirt with super cool graphics, but in the wrong size for the recipient I know would love it. So I came up with this quick and easy solution. Seriously, this one is easy as pie….

I bought a t-shirt at the thrift store with a seriously fun Dr.Seuss pic on the front and it was only $2.

The good news- my son Mathes loves “Green Eggs and Ham”

The bad news- the shirt is an adult size Large.

The good news- I own a pair of scissors, lots of pins, and a handy dandy sewing machine.

So I laid the tee out flat, and cut around the graphic I wanted. There was some other writing underneath the pic that I did not want included, so it was easy enough to just trim it off as I cut around the graphic.

I then trimmed it all fairly close to the edges, leaving a small portion of white around the edges of the yellow screenprinting for ease in sewing and also because I like the way the raw edges look once the shirt is washed, they curl up slightly. It’s all about personal taste here, so love it or hate it, you get to decide. That’s what so fun about this shirt, you get the final say, it’s all up to you.

Anyways, so I have my graphic cut and trimmed. I then grabbed this plain green tee (bought this @ Wal-Mart for $3.50)

and placed the trimmed graphic right where I wanted it,

and then pinned it in place.

Now make sure to slip something into the shirt while you’re pinning so you only pin the graphic to the front of the tee. The last thing you want to have happen is to find that you have pinned all three layers together right as you are sitting at your machine, ready to stitch everything in place. I know, I have done this myself, so I am only trying to save you the swear words now.

I like to use one of my large straight edge quilting rulers, it works like a charm and I always seem to have one laying around within easy grabbing distance.

Then with a medium-long stitch length I stitched it in place all the way around.

 

 And voila! A child sized tee with a fun graphic.

Mathes loves this particular Dr.Seuss story, so he was thrilled that this shirt is for him.

 

This would also be perfect for that favorite t-shirt that your child has outgrown, but they are loathe to give up just yet. Get them to pick out a new plain t-shirt in a larger size (like I said, Wal-Mart has them for $3.50), then have them help you as you cut out the graphic and make their “new” favorite shirt.

You can also zig zag stitch over the edges of the graphic if you prefer a more finished look over the raw one, but if you do use a zig zag stitch, I highly suggest you use some stabilizer underneath or your t-shirt will stretch as you sew and look pretty wonky in the end. I speak from sad, frustrating experience. But using a straight stitch and leaving the raw edges exposed as I did requires no stabilizer, and like I said before, I just like the slightly raw look of that method.

However you do this, there are a lot of fun ways to mix this idea up. If you decide to go ahead and give this a try, make sure to send me your end results, I would love to see it!