Tuesday 26 November 2013

Applique T-shirt: Combine harvester

Yeh!!! A Guest Post!! Happy Happy Day!

I am thrilled to welcome one of my dearest friends - APARNA to the cacophony that is this blog. Aparna is in many ways the saner version of me... but when it comes to crafts of all kinds, she's just as Kooky, and way more Crafty. She crochets, and makes cards, and appliques clothes, and paints and a whole lot of other stuff.
Now that I've her to do one post, I can hope for another soon... maybe she will even become a regular contributor *wink wink*. Well, while I dream, Do read on......

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Background:
I must admit that I have been procrastinating to put this on the blog as I distracted myself to a crazy jigsaw puzzle! A little late!!

This all started when I asked my son a question two months back. "What picture shall I put on your T-shirt for the school harvest party?" I thought after being aware of Halloween season(!) and watching 'Nightmare Before Christmas', in addition to playing some spooky online games which were not at all scary, he would answer something spooky too. No, he didn't say Jack (of Jack O Lantern). He didn't say scary skeleton. He didn't even say spider or spider webs (which he has been crazy about all year through). He did think of a 'witch with a broom'. But then came the final answer: COMBINE! HARVESTER! I was shocked with delight..O yes! It was a harvest party! And the season is called Autumn or Fall. Okay, so I pondered again on "how to" make my little boy's party shirt with a combine! and this is the result.


Materials:
  1. Plain T-shirt for the kid (I used an orange colored full sleeves)
  2. Construction paper or any paper for drawing the image
  3. Old fabric piece for combine applique
  4. Scissors
  5. Marker
  6. Black sewing thread
  7. Needle
  8. One small and one big button

Instructions:

  • First decide the size of the combine you want to make and where you want to place it. 
  • Then, draw/ sketch a combine on a construction paper or any other paper. Cut the outlines, except for the wheels part. (refer the paper cut-out in the picture). 
  • Copy the outlines from the paper cut-out to the fabric piece. (Make sure the fabric piece is washed and ironed.) 
  • Now carefully cut the fabric in the right shape. I used a safety pin at the centre to keep the fabric and paper cut-out  together. 
  • With a marker complete the picture by adding inside details. 
  • Now, place the fabric on the T-shirt and sew it with a black thread (so to match the marker!). Again, I used the safety pin for the fabric piece and T-shirt so it didn't move while I started to stitch. 
  • Once it is done with the needle and thread, it's time to stitch the buttons. The smaller one goes as the back wheel while the larger one becomes the front one. 
  • Stitch the button half over the combine and rest half outside below on the shirt. 
  • Decorate with glitter etc and as you wish! 


Happy Harvest!

** You can, of course, use the same method to make a t-shirt with any theme you like. :)