So about every other season, my kids need a bunch of new clothes. It’s almost summer, so now they need a whole lot of t-shirts, skirts and shorts, and other summery clothing items. I can sew up a whole bunch of t-shirts for them and applique those- I even have a couple fabulous patterns that I really love to use: The Practically Perfect Girls Tee and the Billy Bright Eyes Snappy Tee. But I needed to get these shirts done quickly and I didn’t have time to wait for fabric to arrive.
I know what you’re thinking- why don’t I have a giant stock of fabrics to sew from? I don’t know the answer. I blame Kon Mari or minimalism. Or my husband.
Anyway. So I ordered a bunch of t-shirts on Amazon so they could be here in 2 days with Prime. I got these cute tshirts for Lil’ Miss. Rabbit Skins is my favorite brand though, but they seem to only go up to size 5. I got what I could for Mister Man, but I don’t think he’ll be able to fit in them after this year. #sadface
And then I appliqued them. And now they’re cute. And they satisfy a whole bunch of our family rules about clothes- they’re 100% cotton, they don’t have characters on them, they were inexpensive, they were easy to put together, and did I mention they’re cute? Because they are.
Ok, want to learn how to make them? It’s super easy and so fast!! I’m estimating about 20 minutes each- but that includes all the prep work. The actual sewing took minutes, and if you do all the prep work at once, it goes a lot faster.
You will need:
* a bunch of tshirts
* a bunch of fabric scraps
* pellon wunder under iron-on interfacing
* a piece of tissue paper or Sulky Solvy water soluble interfacing if you’re newer to sewing with knits.
For the fabric, I let my kids pick out of the scrap drawer, and this time I even let them choose a 1/4 yard each of new fabric from the fabric store. That always makes them like the clothes I make even more. You can buy the Wunder Under by the yard at the fabric store also.
First, lay out all the tshirts and match up the fabric to their shirts. If you want, get input from the kids on what shapes or designs they want. Sometimes, I cut a picture out from the fabric- like the chickens in the back left. Sometimes I cut a few designs out. Sometimes I just cut a random shape, like a heart or star. It all depends. The kids give me some ideas.
Now cut out a piece of each fabric. You’ll want at least an inch larger on each side than you’re planning on making the applique.
So if the design you want to sew around, plus a little space around it for aesthetics is 4 inches x 5 inches, you’ll want to cut a piece that is 6 x 7 inches. If you’ll be cutting out a shape, just go an inch larger on each side than you’ll want the finished shape to be.
You may have to cut out of the middle of the fabric if your daughter wants a *particular* chicken on the fabric. See how I’ve left plenty of space around the edges of the design?
Iron all the fabric pieces so there are no wrinkles.
Now, you’re going to iron the fabric onto the Wunder Under. One side of the Wunder Under will feel like wax paper. The other side is kind of bumpy or rough feeling. The latter is the side you want to iron the fabric onto. Follow the directions for how long and what heat to iron on.
You can cut a large piece and put them together like a puzzle on top of the interfacing, like I did in the picture above. Or you can cut smaller pieces to place behind each individual fabric. Whatever you do, do not let your iron touch the Wunder Under. It is not fun to remove. If a piece of Wunder Under will be sticking out, cover it with a sheet of typing paper or tissue paper or something.
Now that you’ve got all your fabric ironed on, it’s time to cut out the fun applique shapes!
On this monster fabric, I cut out a collection of the monsters that I liked.
From this hedgehog fabric, I cut a heart. To get exactly the shape that you want, you can draw flower shapes, spirals… there are lots of fun options! Make sure you leave at least half an inch around the design that you want to capture.
Ok, now that you’ve got your shape cut out, you’re ready to apply it to the shirt.
Lay out the tshirt with the side up that you want the applique on. Iron the area where you’re going to put the applique.
Peel the backing off your cut out applique.
Play around with placing the applique where you want it. I’m doing all of these with their appliques front and center. You could place them off to the side. You could do one on the front and one on the back. Play around with it. The sky’s the limit.
Once you figure out where you want the applique to go, iron it on, following the directions on the Wunder Under wrapper.
Now it’s time to head over to the sewing machine. Set your stitch width to the widest zig-zag stitch that you have. Set your stitch length to just above zero. You might want to play around with the stitching on some scrap fabric to make sure you got it just the way you want it.
Choose your thread color wisely! If you use white for everything, like I often do, it can draw a lot of attention to the outline of the applique- and that might not be what you want.
Now, if you unfamiliar with sewing knit fabric, this step is for you. Take a piece of tissue paper and place it behind the applique, inside the shirt. Pin it in place if that helps.
This is done because knits stretch as you sew and if it stretches, it will look all wonky and stretchy in places. In this case, the applique works more like a woven fabric and will help keep everything in place, but if you haven’t done this before, I recommend the tissue paper until you’re more familiar with it.
Carefully line up your needle so that when it comes down on the right side, it comes down right over the edge of the applique.
Start stitching. Go slowly until you get a feel for it. And always go slow around the curves. When the needle comes down on the right side, it should *just* go off the edge of the applique.
All right! You did it!
Now to clean it up a little bit. Tear off the tissue paper. It will leave the bits inside the stitching.
When you wash, most of that will come out, especially if you give it a good soak. Then you pick out what’s left with a pair of tweezers.
An alternative to using tissue paper, is to use Sulky Solvy water soluble interfacing. It’s great. Stick on, rinse away.
And there you go! A lovely applique on your little’s shirt! So easy and fast!! I think I whipped all of these out in just about an hour.
Those are some happy kids!! And dang cute, if I do say so myself! Now they’re all outfitted for summer!
This post was published on Muse of the Morning.com
