Tutorial Tuesday: Fall Toddler Tee

When I saw this tee shirt in the Boden catalog, my creative juices instantly started flowing. I love how simple graphics done the right way can produce such a pop!

Image from Boden.com

The first step in completing this project was to find a plain shirt in Peachy's size to embellish. Who knew that this step would actually prove to be the most challenging of the entire project. I finally found a long sleeved, brown ribbed knit shirt at Old Navy.

The next step was to create the graphic. I altered the pear a bit from what is on the Boden tee. The shirt I bought had buttons on the neckline, so a centered pear wouldn't work. Since the pear would be off to one side, it would have to be scaled down. So, I created a pear graphic that was smaller, but I also decided to make it pleasantly plump!

Once the graphic was created, I could trace it onto Heat and Bond Lite. (You can use whatever iron on fabric bonding material that you like, just make sure that you can sew through it.) After tracing, iron the Heat and Bond onto the inside of your shirt. Before removing the baking, cut along your traced line through the Heat and Bond and the shirt.

Remove the paper and you will be left with something that looks like this:

Prepare your backing fabric by cutting it roughly to shape. (I stuck with a rectangle and made sure that it covered the Heat and Bond rectangle on the shirt.) I also ironed a light weight interfacing to the back of the backing fabric to give it a little more body. Now you can iron your backing fabric over the top of the Heat and Bond on the inside of the shirt.

Turn the shirt right side out and zigzag around the opening being overlap the cutout a bit to catch the raw shirt edge. (I have done reverse appliqué on plain knit tee shirts and only straight stitches around the opening, but since this one was ribbed, it needed to be zigzagged to prevent unraveling.)

To make the stem, trace the stem and leaf from your original graphic onto another small piece of Heat and Bond Lite. I chose a cream felt for my stem and leaf and ironed the Heat and Bond onto a small rectangle of it once the stem and leaf had been traced. Once ironed on, cut around the stem and leaf tracing.

Iron the stem and leaf cutout to the front of the shirt placing it on the top of the pear. Stitch around the stem and leaf with a straight stitch. And your shirt is done.








Here is a close up of the finished product:

Now, I always dream of having the pictures of my projects come out looking like the pictures that Dana at Made takes of her projects. Such great photography and such a great model. Unfortunately I am lacking the great photography equipment, not to mention the photography skills. And while Little Peachy is adorable, (hey, I am her mom, I have the right to think so) she is not quite modeling material at this point!!

Always good to have your model looking at the camera, not the toy on the ground.

Once again, toys are more interesting than the camera.

What do you think she is trying to tell me with a face like that?

At least her eyes are on the camera.

Normally shoes are not props in photo shoots, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Great smile, but once again with the shoe!

Charging the camera and that's a wrap!