Customised t-shirt

Just a quick post today - I just had to come and show off my first attempt at customising clothes. I've been thinking about doing some applique on t-shirts for my son for ages but for some reason I thought that sewing on t-shirt fabric was tricky. I took the plunge last week and bought some 'ball point' needles for my sewing machine and a pack of plain t-shirts to 'play' with.

I decided to use a template I already had to hand - an elephant from the applique elephant cushion I made for Mothers' Day.  So I chose my fabrics and got to work with my template and some Bondaweb.

And ta-da!  Here is the finished t-shirt -

Isn't it sweet?  I thought the elephant on it's own looked like it needed 'something' so I added the water droplets.  The elephant and his ear have satin stitch around them and the droplets just have a single line stitch just inside the edge of the fabric.  I've also added a button for the eye.

My applique around the elephant isn't perfect but for my first attempt, I'm very pleased! 

I'm really glad I found a tip over on Sew, Mama, Sew! where it suggests ironing fusible stabiliser to the back of the fabric where you'll be doing the applique.  I didn't have fusible stabiliser however, so I just ironed some thin interfacing on and it held the t-shirt fabric together making it easier to sew onto.

I've got another t-shirt planned too - a personalised one!  All cut out and ready to sew during tomorrow's nap-time.



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