Another T-shirt for Liam

After finishing the other t-shirt yesterday, I got stuck into this one. When it was finished Liam asked me "Shirt off?" so that he could try it on, and as you can see, was happy to pose for more photos. I've used this Ottobre free stencil design before, for a long sleeved t-shirt that is also one of his favourites.

New T-shirt for Liam

As you can see, Liam is pretty pleased with his new T-shirt. He doesn't seem to have enough of them at the moment, so I've got a few to make. This one was made from some fabric from my stash. I'm pretty sure that it's left-overs from mum's.



The stencil is a free design from Ottobre, and I used freezer paper and some orange fabric paint from the old stash (yes, it's still good). The pattern is my stand-by t-shirt pattern from Kwik-Sew Sewing for Toddlers. I did a size three with an extra inch or so added to the bottom. I used twin needles to do the hem and to apply the neck and sleeve bands.

My Creative Space - Fabric paint

When I was making the pincushion for the swap, I used some of our hobby paints to paint the stand. Whist looking for those, I managed to find a tin full of fabric paints that I had forgotten I had, from years ago. I haven't tested them yet - hopefully they are all still okay.

On the weekend, I managed to get them all (the old ones and the new ones) in the one place. I also cut out six t-shirts for Liam using some fabrics from my stash. Today I started making freezer paper stencils so that I can make the t-shirts more interesting.

To see what other people are doing in their creative spaces, visit Kirsty.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...

....is Liam's favourite song, and what he started singing when he saw what I was making him.

The stars were added to the front by way of freezer paper stencil, before I sewed it together.

I did a little overlocker experiment to sew the neckband, shoulder seams and the hems. 

The pattern is Ottobre workshop 301. I did a size 98, to give Liam a little growing room.

I ran into some problems with stripes early on, but I will come back and post how I over-came that.

Airplane T-shirt

I made a t-shirt for one of my nephews for Christmas using this stencil. The picture is freely available from the Ottobre web-site. My nephews got Ottobre t-shirts, but for Liam I used my trusty Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers pattern.

I did a different type of neck finish this time. I sewed the right sides of the t-shirt and the ribbing together, folded it over towards the back, pinned and topstitched with twin needles. Then cut the excess fabric away from the back. For the neckband, I used the same fabric type in a different colour, so the length is 3/4 the circumference on the t-shirt. If I was doing it with ribbing I would probably do 2/3, depending on how stretchy the ribbing is.

I did the sleeve ends and the bottom hem the same way I did the hem on the solitary giraffe t-shirt and the number two t-shirt. Only thing is, you know how I have been adding to the bottom of my t-shirts and the sleeves because of the cuffs that are on the original pattern? Well, I need to be taking the extra (or at least some of it) back off as I am technically adding cuffs. I looked at a couple of t-shirts, thinking they looked longer, but it wasn't until I did this one and saw that the sleeves actually were longer that I realised what I was doing. So I have to go back and re-do the sleeve edges on this one. After it comes back out of the wash.

A Sparkley Surprise

This is my first attempt at stenciling t-shirts. They were Christmas presents for my nephews. I had purchased (what I thought were) some basic colours from Spotlight. I decided that the blue would be a bit harsh on the eyes, so mixed the blue with some black to make a navy (ish) colour.

It turned out pretty good, or so I thought. I tested some on a scrap of red fabric, and it looked alright. I then stuck the stencil on the cut out front piece of t-shirt, and started dabbing with my sponge. Boy, was I surprised to see the glitter! Upon closer insection, the blue fabric paint had glitter in it. There is nothing on the label to indicate this. Since I started, I decided to

continue.