Cool Shirts

I found this blog, Making the World Cuter and loved this tutorial.

I can not wait to make some shirts for our little man that is coming soon!

Foam Stamps + Bleach = Cool Shirts

I have been wanting to use a bleach pen and make my kids shirts forever, especially since I saw Cheri's cute bleach pen shirts at I am Momma-Hear Me Roar. So I was super excited that my mom had picked up a bleach pen and shirts to decorate for my 5 year old while I was in Portland last week.
I brought them home, and thought about all the ways I could do these, but I wanted mine to be original. But how?
I used to be a scrapbooker, and I still have a BUNCH of stuff.
My husband threatens me on a daily basis to get rid of it, but I know I can make good use of it.
Light bulb!
I have a HUGE collection of foam stamps-they were the perfect fit for my project.

SO I got to work...
Okay-so out of the 4 t-shirts I made-I took a picture of the one that didn't turn out! This gray was just too light, and I didn't let the bleach set long enough to even make a difference-so it came out of the wash looking like a bleached work shirt, rather than something cool.

SO-use darker colors...or be more patient and let it sit for hours and see what comes of your lighter t-shirts.

On my darker shirts, I only waited like 10 minutes. The parts I used the straight bleach on lightened SUPER fast, and the bleach pen just barely started working which left super cool colors. On the black it left orange/red, on the green it left a blue and on the navy blue shirt it left a kind of pink/orange. LOVE the results!

After you have waited as much as you are going to wait...

After drying, let your super cute model wear it for you and make a goofy face...Don't you just LOVE how it turned out?
The other 2 are cool too, but this one is my favorite.
I love the orange dashes from the bleach pen, and the super cool bleach splats.

Here are some things I learned from this...

J.Crew Inspired tshirt

Adorable isn't it?! I made THIS shirt and I love it!

(The picture below isn't mine, I made a pink one.)

I poked myself a couple hundred times, bleed a little but in the end its all worth it!

I love the feeling of wearing or having something that I have made. It makes me feel so good inside. Maybe thats because I know I didn't spend over $15 to make it!

Ruffle T-Shirt

Even though THIS tutorial is meant for a little girls shirt, Im still going to try it and make one for me!

You will need:

T Shirt

Knit scraps or extra T shirt

Matching Thread

Start with a plain Tshirt. I picked this baby up at Target for $3

Next grab a thrifted T Shirt. I'm always wandering around goodwill looking for XL T-shirts. They are great for extra material, and they are super soft. This particular shirt was long sleeved, and I decided that the length was great.

I cut off at the shoulder and I cut off the cuff. Next I opened it up by cutting off the inside seam...

And started cutting my 1.5" strips. You can go wider too, whatever style you like. 1.5" worked for me becuase I didn't want the ruffles to overwhelm the shirt...and my 22 month old's neck!

Run a basting stitch about 1/8 inch along one long side (sorry, didn't take this pic) and pull to create a ruffle.

Attach the ruffle at the neckline. I decided to keep the ruffle more towards the front of the blouse. Pin it directly onto the neckline and stitch down.

Take the next ruffle and pin it underneath the first ruffle. I made this ruffle not as long as the first one, to make it cascading

Continue with the other two layers with the same technique, gradually making the ruffles shorter to keep the cascading look.

And your all done!

Now pair it with a cute skirt...

...or some great jeans

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.

Ruffle Shirt

These shirts are soo easy to make! I made one and want to make more!