Dianne's Little Corner: How sometimes two wrongs (or three or four...) can turn out right

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

How sometimes two wrongs (or three or four...) can turn out right

I recently hit the Boxing Day Sales where I picked up some plain polo shirts and a plain t-shirt from Rivers for $3.90 each. I decided that I wanted to embellish the plain t-shirt a bit, but still be able to tumble dry the shirt (due to all the rain we've been having). So I decided on reverse applique. And that's where things started to go a little pear-shaped... :-) Here's what I did.

Here's the original shirt. I love the blue, but it was just a little plain. My first problem was that the shirt didn't lie flat - it has a slight twist. I don't know if that makes it drape nicer, but it made the whole process a lot more challenging.

I found this tree design from LollyChops and thought that it would look great on a t-shirt.

Then I decided to try and use the freezer paper stencilling technique... Unfortunately I don't have any freezer paper, so I thought greaseproof paper would work as it is shiny on one side. So I traced the design and cut it out.

Then I tried to iron on the greaseproof paper. And found that its not the same as the American freezer paper. It just wouldn't stick. So I ended up having to trace around the stencil with a fabric marker.

Then I tried on the shirt and found that I had placed the design crooked and the trunk of the tree was pointing diagonally to my right hip. So I decided to just forget about sewing the trunk!

Next I pinned a remnant of white knit fabric to the inside of my shirt. Make sure that the knit fabric covers your front design.

Then I started sewing. I used a stretch stitch and my applique foot on my sewing machine.

This next photo is sideways but you get the general idea...

Then I trimmed the knit material to close to the sewing. Knit fabric won't fray, so you can leave it unhemmed, but it would probably look better with overlocked or zigzagged edges.