Sewing: Refabrication: Value-added Custom T-Shirts

I made some fun t-shirts for the ten year old. Or, to be precise, I added some iron-on transfers to store-bought $3 t-shirts which I customized for her style.

One t-shirt got a scalloped hemline plus some photo pile-like arrangement of pictures (iron-on t-shirt transfer) from her recent trip to Winston Wildlife Safari, Humboldt Redwoods, Golden Gate Bridge, Monterey Bay Aquarium and such.

One white t-shirt was partially dyed blue to evoke a feeling of flowing water in which I ironed on some pictures from our recent trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

One t-shirt got an angular and slightly asymmetrical hemline, to which I added cute picture of her pets - cat and guinea pig - with the words, "Make new friends but keep the old; One is silver and the other's gold."

And her favorite is this white one with a picture of the cake pops that she had made a couple of years ago; the special feature being the fringe hemline and sleeves that I added. Coupled with white capris, this t-shirt has become her favorite outfit of late.

Sewing: Refabrication: Flags T-Shirt

The shirt front has flags of 6 Russian oblasts, krais and republics; the back of the shirt has 6 German Bundesländer flags.

The youngest was into studying administrative divisions of various countries and wanted badly to have shirts with flag of his choice.

Simple iron-on transfer, no fuss, no mess.

Sewing: Toddler T-shirts

I had bought five yards of white cotton ribbed knit fabric on sale a long time ago and have been making t-shirts for the kids. The intention then was to sew stylish t-shirts for Ana, dyeing them suitably and maybe embellishing them...

I love the fabric as it is durable and soft, and some of Ana's non-girly ones are now hand-me-downs for Og. They still are in great shape despite many washes over the years, which amazes me.

Anyway, I had posted my early set of custom tie-dyed t-shirts, and this one here is done the same way. The cutting and sewing part is rather simple - regular set-in sleeves 3/4 length, simple squarish neck, nothing fancy.

Since I use a single solid color for dyeing usually, I find it easier to sew the t-shirt and then dye using the familiar tie-dye technique, tying off portions of the finished t-shirt with strings or rubberbands.

Sometimes, for two-color dyeing, I sew the shoulder seams, and dye the body and sleeves separately, and then finish sewing the sleeves and side seams. This can get tricky if the fabric shrinks unevenly. But so far, it has worked out fine with this ribbed knit fabric.

This one here is one such two-color dyed t-shirt. Oggie seems to like the shirt, although I suspect it is because of the color - he thinks all things blue are his and all things pink-and-purple are Ana's anyway...

tie-dye toddler ribbed-knit tees

I bought about 5 yards or so, a while back, of white ribbed knit fabric as it was on sale at fabric.com.

I had made some winter full-sleeved tees for my baby, dyed the whole tee sort of grey (was going for black, really, and lost patience), and tie-dyed just the sleeves for a trendy look.

I still had plenty of this white ribbed knit fabric left, so, I decided to make half-sleeved t-shirts and tie-dye the whole shirt, in indigo.

The problem really for me is that I like to start and finish these projects in the shortest possible time, and preferably during weekends when I am not weary from a stressful work day, trying to get dinner ready, play with Ana, read to her, put her in bed, maybe read my book and hit the sack so I can be ready for the next work day... As a result, lot of times, I get impatient and want to finish the project fast, so, I cut down the steps.

Somehow, even on weekends, I am not able to justify spending a lot of time on my "hobbies" when there are loads of laundry waiting for me, not to mention cooking three meals a day - which I get to do only on weekends, and I love to cook - so, not complaining there...



Anyway, it was fun as I was trying to make one for Ana, one for my nephew, and one for my niece who are all about the same size - of course, I kept the tie-dye patterns slightly different, naturally:-)

The t-shirt was easy to sew— just regular set-in sleeves, simple neck, nothing fancy.

I thought about tie-dyeing in some baby colors, say some shade of pastel blue for the boy and some shade of pink/lilac for the girls. But, decided to go with indigo instead — as not many baby shirts are made in that color, it would be unique ;-)

I still had a few patches left from the baby mat/toy tote project, so, I sewed one patch on each shirt where I could add the blue and pink touches, and added some stones on the third.

As I still have quite a bit of that white ribbed knit fabric, sometime down the road, when I am in the mood again, I wil try tie-dyeing in a couple of different colors.