recycled dino shirt :: mini tutorial

So, I know this is not exactly the best thing I have ever made...but I thought I would share the idea of how I made it with you.

The two different fabrics are both from old t-shirts. The dino print one is a newborn sized shirt that belonged to Jude, and the green was a shirt of mine. 

 

If you are interested in making one, grab your favorite tee pattern and two old shirts, then follow along!
(If you were after a picture heavy tutorial, I apologise in advance. This is a bit of a hack job).

Cut your two shirts open down the side seams.

Place your shirt front and back pattern pieces on the larger shirt lining up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of the shirt.
This way you wont have to hem your shirt when your done (I like it , I like it!).

Then lay the sleeve pattern pieces along the bottom hem of the smaller shirt, and cut.

Sew your shirt up according to pattern direction and add some ribbing for the neckband.
The onesie tutorial will help you out if you are unsure about binding/ribbing.

Then bar tack your seams to one side (to the back looks best) on the sleeve edges, and at the bottom of the side seams on body.

So... not exactly rocket science.

But you do get a kick out of recycling two un-used shirts, and not having to bother with heming or binding edges (apart from neck).
It's amazing how much time that saves!

Enough time in fact to add a few cute patches on the front...

The dinosaurs were cut from left over fabric.

Cut a circular cardboard template to the size you want your patches (mine were 3 different sizes).

Cut your fabric 1cm wider all around than the template.

Stitch around the edge of fabric circles with a large straight stitch, then gather the circle to fit around the cardboard.
Give it a good steam iron to press into shape. Pull out your cardboard.
Add some iron on adhesive to back of patch if you like.
Something like Vliesofix, heat and bond...or equivalent.

Iron patches onto garment. Top stitch around edges to finish.

And there you have it! 

One fun recycled (or is it upcycled??) tee with super cute button patches.

tie tee

Check out this little shirt!

I found the tutorial on Saltwater kids via 'Celebrate the boy' on Made, and knew I had to make one for my boy. 
You could make so many fun variations with this simple pattern.
I am thinking a few long sleeved ones for winter would be really cute too.

The t-shirt pattern is one from Ottobre 3/08.

just for fun

A few weeks back when I was tossing up ideas for the baby boy's onesie, I came up with this logo of 'the boy', which my brother helped me to polish up- thanks Tim! To cut a long story short, I decided to go with the striped onesie instead. Then later I thought some of you might like it to use it. Maybe its more your style, bold and out there rather than subtle and sweet?

  
So here's the PDF if you want to have a play!

You can stencil it with freezer paper (Dana's tutorial here). Or,  I have even reversed the images on the second page of PDF so it can be printed onto Iron on Transfer paper, cut out and ironed directly onto garment. 

I found that ironing it onto stretch wasn't the best idea, the imaged seemed to crack a little as the fabric stretched. So, one solution might be ironing it onto plain white woven fabric, then stitching it to the garment. Or you can try the reverse applique technique (which is what I've done on this outfit... don't look too close, very rough!).

don't you just want to squeeze the boy!

 

ok ok, enough of the photo's mum. My eyes are blinded by the light!

And a side note for those of you that live in Australia:

I have found that Spotlight now sells Freezer Paper for stenciling at the cutting counter. You can buy it by the meter, instead of having to purchase the whole roll which is just brilliant if you are only wanting to do one or two stencils!

fish tee

Another brought tee that I appliqued on.
This time Grace's request was for a fish, and here is the end result.
I was going to start it yesterday while the littlest two slept, but Grace wanted me to sew at night so that she could come and find it on the table in the morning and get a surprise.
And her enthusiasm this morning when she awoke to find her new tee was just adorable!
I remember the same excitement from when I was younger, coming out for breakfast to find a finished garment mum had been sewing on the table. I was always in awe at what she could create while I slept. How lovely it is to be able to recreate those memories for my children!

pretty tee's

The warmer weather has brought on the need to sew for summer.
I can see with 3 little ones (and the lack of sleep they bring) that I wont have as much time to sew from scratch, so we ended up buying a few plain shirts to decorate.
The bird applique is from Ottobre 4/09.

The crochet butterfly was on an old singlet of mine, that unfortunately no longer fits.
I love the colours in it, so it was great to be able unpick it and restitch on Grace's tee.

More tee's to come...

summer boys clothes

Here's something you don't see everyday...well especially at our place- boys clothes! I made these a couple of weeks ago to send to a little boy, in exchange for one of his mum's amazing hand dyed creations. Very excited about this swap! It was so nice to sew something simple that didn't involve frills or gathering or lace or ribbon...you get my point. It took me ages to decide what to sew, as I feel a little clueless when it comes to boys. I had summer boys clothes on the brain and even asked Luke one morning if he wanted summer boys clothes for breakfast (meant to say porridge), sad really!



I also had this homeless shirt sitting around the sewing room, so decided to send it as well, and stenciled the plane on the front. I cut the stencil out of contact and then stuck it on the shirt and painted in the gaps. It worked really well. I've never tried that method before...has anyone else?
Good for one off designs.

little feet

One other thing I really like to sew for is little feet. I brought a bag of scrap leather off eBay years ago with shoes in mind. It took me ages to figure out how to sew the leather. I had the leather needle in, but the leather wouldn't feed through properly and kept sticking. Anyway, someone recently suggested that I use my walking foot and now it works fine- happy days!
The red pair have been worn to shreds. I recently had to re-sew the stitching at the front of them. They were originally Grace's, but these days they belong to Maeve. I made the blue shoes recently for Maeve to wear to a family wedding. They matched her pale blue silk dress perfectly. And the ugg boots are some I am currently working on for Grace, constructed out of an old pair of Luke's. The fleece is proving a right pain to sew and I am beginning to wonder if I should just finish them off by hand with a blanket stitch. Any ideas would be most welcome!

long tee's

These have been fun to sew. I think I am finally getting the hang of stretch, although I did break two twin needles in the process...too lazy to pull out the pins while sewing. The first two are the same pattern Ottobre 4/2007, striped T-shirt. If this fabric looks familiar, thats because it is. I am slowly trying to chew through my mounds of fabric. You will probably be seeing more of it soon. The blue deer on the red and white striped shirt is one of my favorite colour combinations. A little deer for my little dear. And the white shirt is from Ottobre 1/2008, "puffy" blouse. Its on the big side, which I like. My kids seem to be growing like weeds at the moment.