Rose Petal Tee

THIS is just A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E!

Materials

Boatneck T-shirt

3 T-shirts in assorted shades complementary to the boatneck tee

Quilting ruler

Self-healing cutting mat

Rotary cutter

Pencil

Card stock

Tailor's chalk

Fabric scissors

Sewing machine and thread in complementary colors

Needle and thread in colors to match T-shirts

Straight pins

Make the Flowers and Leaves

1. Use a quilting ruler and work on a cutting mat using a rotary cutter to cut from the assorted T-shirts the following strips of fabric:

One 6" x 24"/15cm x 60cm

Five 3" x 14"/8cm x 36cm

Three 2" x 9"/5cm x 23cm

Note: You may have to sew a couple of strips together to get a 24"/60cm strip.

2. Trace about a dozen leaves onto the assorted T-shirts. Cut with fabric scissors. Mark simple leaf veins on the leaves with tailor's chalk.

3. Set your sewing machine to a straight stitch and sew veins on the leaves, backstitching at the beginning and end.

4. To make the flowers,

a. Thread a needle with a thread color that matches the T-shirt strip. Knot the thread end and set aside.

b. Fold a T-shirt strip in half lengthwise. Holding each end of the strip with your hands, with the folded edge at the top, fold the upper left corner down so that the raw side edge of the strip meets the bottom edge of the strip, forming a 45-degree angle. (See figure 1.)

c. Start rolling the first few inches of the left side of the strip to make the center of the rose. (See figure 2.) Sew through the bottom edges of the flower center to secure.

d. Fold the strip at a 45-degree angle next to the flower center and roll flower center onto the fold. (See figure 3.) Sew bottom edge to secure. Repeat folding the strip, rolling the flower onto fold, and stitching to secure, until there's no fabric left.

e. Tuck the final end of strip under the flower and sew to secure.

f. Repeat all the steps to form flowers from each T-shirt strip.

Assemble the T-Shirt

1. Lay the boatneck T-shirt out on a flat, clean surface. With the T-shirt facing you, pin the largest rose just slightly left of the center of the shirt. Pin two leaves below the rose. With a needle and thread, hand-stitch to the shirt to secure. Remove the pins.

2. Cluster four roses to the left of the large rose and accent with leaves as desired. Pin, hand-stitch to secure, and remove the pins.

3. Pin clusters of leaves trailing up the neckline of the T-shirt to cover the rest of the left side of the neckline. Hand-stitch to secure, then remove the pins.

4. Cluster four roses to the right of the T-shirt in a different formation than the one on the left and accent with leaves as desired. Pin, hand-stitch to secure, and remove the pins.

5. Pin clusters of leaves trailing up the neckline of the T-shirt to cover the rest of the right side of the neckline. Hand-stitch to secure, and then remove the pins.