March 24, 2011

a dirt shirt

Have you heard about the contest over at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar?


It's all about the boys and the contest is to create a shirt (or two) for a boy.  And you know I love contests.  And I have a 4-year-old boy.  And it is so hard to find awesome clothes for boys.  So I'm also looking forward to the contest linky day just to see all the great ideas.

I'm cheap so I like to stock up on clothes for my son.  The only problem is my son won't wear plain shirts (which I discovered last year after I had stockpiled a bunch of clearance shirts).  Even though my son won't wear plain shirts, I still can't pass up a good deal when I find one.  So when I found a plain brown shirt at Goodwill I knew I could transform it into something totally cool like this. . .


I made an applique using this construction stencil template at Spay Paint Stencils. I used Heat N Bond lite to fuse it to the t-shirt then machine stitched around the applique twice with white thread to make it stand out more.


The fabric is leftover from a thrifted men's dress shirt I had used to make an art smock. I have a hard time throwing away any of the leftover pieces--I know they can be used for something. The shirt tails were also leftover from the original shirt so I cut them off and attached them to the inside of the t-shirt for a layered look.  (I totally didn't measure very well when I cut my "tails" pieces so they're a little narrow.  I'm sure it will turn out better next time!)


I used my Cricut and the Plantain Schoolbook cartridge to make a freezer paper stencil with the phrase "i like dirt." I painted the letters with Ceramcoat Georgia Clay (one of my favorites), a little bit of white paint, then another light coat of Georgia Clay for a distressed look.


I added a pocket made from a scrap of fabric and replaced the original plain brown buttons with some orange ones.  (Of course I didn't measure the original buttons before I went to the store so the orange ones are actually a size too big but I was able to force them through the existing button holes.)


For the finishing touch, I used white thread to make a couple of wavy lines stitched around the hem on the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt.


Not bad for a couple of bucks!

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