Skirt from Ugly TShirt

Hello! I have an entry to the Lil Blue Boo Ugly Knits contest! I made Delilah a skirt from a Tshirt, embellished with fabric paint and applique. Check it out!

Ahhh - 'scuse the tongue out on my sweet model!

We're loving Mr Men books right now!

I just love the Union Jack. I came to America when I was 12 years old, from England. So the Union Jack has been in my life and my heart for a VERY long time. Let me show you how I put this together. And....my technique could just as easily be used for the Stars N Stripes or any other nation's flag you love.

Here is the TShirt I started with:

Anyone familiar with the Buccaneers last football season has to agree it was UGLY! I happen to be a Buccaneers fan. This shirt was a gift to my husband from my BFF. However, my husband is a Buffalo Bills fan. (Insert groan here) There is no way my dedicated Bills fan husband would deign to wear a Tampa Bay shirt, so to him, this shirt is TRULY ugly. It's way too big for me, so the ugly knit contest it is!

First, I cut off the bottom of the shirt at about 12 inches.

Then I got to work on the Union Jack. I took a piece of freezer paper, and used my ruler to draw straight lines. First is the basis of the flag, the St George cross.

Now, this flag is so familiar to me, that I just drew it up from memory. I've been coloring it since I was a little one myself so I didn't need a picture to follow. Plus it's all straight lines so pretty straightforward. Another way to do this would be to print a flag out and trace it.

I had all my lines drawn, so it was time for cleanup.

Ahh, there ya go! My pretty Union Jack on freezer paper!

Next it needed to be cut out to make it into a stencil. Keeping the pieces in the right places is important.

Now, the stencil is to cover the parts of the flag that are red and blue. So starting with the center stencil piece, I ironed on the center cross.

Then I carefully placed the corner pieces onto the fabric and ironed them on too. Good thing I kept them in order!

Once they were all ironed on, it was fabric paint time for the white parts.

Note I left the outside of the stencil rather sloppy. For me that was part of the "punk appeal" of the design. It would be pretty easy to make the stencil more precise if that's a look you prefer.

I used two coats of paint, letting it dry between coats.

While it was drying, I started work on the blue applique pieces. I wanted to use another "ugly knit" but didn't have a blue ugly knit that qualified, so I grabbed a piece of blue Kona cotton from my stash. I used Heat N Bond to apply to the fabric, following instructions on the package.

Once the Heat N Bond was secure to one side of the fabric, I ironed the remaining unpainted stencil pieces to the fabric to give me a cutting guide for my triangles. I needed 8 triangles.

Ok - the paint dried! Time to carefully peel off the stencil.

Leaving a cool white imprint! Honestly, I was tempted just to stop there. I found the simplicity of the red and white really appealling.

But I had my triangles ready. I played with them a bit to get the placement right.

Then cut off the excess from them to clean it up a bit, ready for applique.

Once placed, I peeled off the Heat N Bond backing paper.

And ironed on. Now, since there was fabric paint on the fabric, I put a piece of muslin over the section I was ironing, to protect the paint from scorching and messing up my iron. The heat from the iron through the muslin also helps to heat set the fabric paint.

Once all ironed on, I set my sewing machine zig-zag stitch wide, with a narrow space between each zig - it looks like a satin stitch this way. I then sewed around each piece of blue fabric that was adhered with the Heat N Bond.

Ok - All pieces stitched in place and almost finished! I was glad I went ahead with the blue. That's the flag I love!

Last thing to do - the waistband. I turned the skirt inside out, and folded down the top edge about 3/4 inch. (My elastic was 1/2 inch.) I didn't double fold, because the knit won't fray, and to be honest, I didn't have much extra fabric at the top to allow for lots of folding!

Then I slowly stitched around the fold, creating a pocket around the top for the elastic. I left about a 2 inch opening to slip the elastic in.

To slip in the elastic, I attached a safety pin to the end of the elastic. I like using diaper pins because their larger size makes it easier, in my opinion.

Once the elastic was through, I sewed the ends together and sewed the 2 inch opening shut. After all those photographs of every step in the process, for some reason my brain switched off and I didn't photograph that last little bit. Sorrys!

Here is the finished skirt.

It's a little long for Delilah, but she's growing up so fast, that won't be true soon. I can't believe my baby girl is SO BIG already. How time flies.....

Handing an acorn to Daddy - awwwww!

Thanks for visiting. I hope I haven't turned off all my American friends by being so obsessed with my dear Union Jack. I love America!

Later skaters,

Janimal

Toddler Pillow from Ugly Toddler Stained Shirt

Over at Little Blue Boo, there is a contest for making a child's item out of an ugly knit. I LOVE this challenge. I am SO excited about seeing what other people do (no doubt there will be more projects on my list inspired by other entries.)


So far I have three entries. Here is my first super simple toddler pillow from a stained hand-me-down TShirt!

First, the before shot of the shirt.





Not exactly "ugly" but that's because you can't see the stain at the neckline. While it's pretty cool my point and shoot camera helps camouflage stuff like that in pictures, it's hard for me to show details to you friendly blogreader folks. So you have to trust me - there is some ugly stuff on this shirt! It's also too big for Delilah and by the time it does fit her, it'll be the wrong season to wear a Summery T with a peekaboo cutout on the back.

Here is the pillow AFTER shot. Chillin on the toddler sofa with baby.

What helped make this project so simple, is that the original shirt already had a cute design on it. Complete with a fun design, cute little gem embellishments and embroidery. If it had been a plainer shirt, it would have been fun to add some little touches but the design required no further work. Perhaps next time!

From looking, many of you can probably figure out how I did this. But I know when you try something for the first time, it can still be tricky even for something simple like this. I made a mistake as I made this! Yep - such a simple little project and I still messed up. So in this tutorial I show you my mess up and my simple fix.

First, I drew a straight line with a fabric marker across the shirt. And....this was a mistake. What I SHOULD have done was turn the garment inside out first. Ah well, it is a mistake I was able to correct.



I used the drawn line as my guide and sewed right on top of it. The plan here is that this will be the top seam of the pillow. I'll sew the bottom, leaving an opening for turning, along the bottom finished edge of the shirt.




Then I cut about 3/8' away from the stitched line.




I then realized my boo-boo. I should have drawn the line and sewed the seam with the shirt inside out.

So what to do? I turned the shirt inside out, and sewed a new seam about a half inch away, encasing the old seam. This was an accidental french seam!





Then I sewed the bottom of the shirt a few inches on each side, leaving about a 2 inch gap for turning. I sewed right along an existing stitch line.





Then turned it!




After turning, it was time to stuff with polyfil. I tend to overstuff things - but this time I was after a nice soft pillow, so tried to be careful.




The only thing left to do was whipstitch the bottom gap closed. Because I used the bottom of the shirt for the gap, and had stitched along the existing stitch line, I had a perfect line to follow when pinching the pillow closed.




Given the very simple nature of this toddler pillow project, I don't anticipate winning a prize. I have so much faith in the vast creativity of other bloggers who will enter, that I know the winner will just blow us all away! For me, entering the contest isn't as much about winning, as it is the idea of it and the challenge to enter makes me think of doing new things. A week ago I saw this too big stained shirt and thought "oh, that was a cute shirt, too bad Delilah won't be wearing it" - but this week I looked at it and thought "OH, cool contest entry!" - and am so pleased with the result.


Delilah seemed to enjoy a little pretend night night on the pillow.

I have another ugly knit project to show you, where I have taken what might get the prize for the ugliest before pic of a weird sweater. It is now a superduper ugly hat!

The third project I am pretty proud of. I got to use fabric paint, heat n bond, andmy sewing machine to make a rad skirt for my Delilah. I'll show that off when I have a little more time to put it together AND to make sure I get pictures of Delilah wearing it.

If you see a contest online - don't think about winning. Don't think about comparing yourself to the crafty superwomen with mad skillz and their fabulous projects and professional photography. Think about how you are challenging yourself. Think about the cool inspiration you have to create something you might not have otherwise. Enjoy!


And keep in mind, should you enter, I am entering a hideous sweater turned hat that so far my 21 month year old daughter refuses to wear. I can't blame her - it's still really ugly!

Later skaters,

Janimal