Monday 23 December 2013

Me + Google Images + Field Trip pattern = Awesome T-shirts

Forgive me if this is a bit self indulgent but I may have reached new levels of awesome mum/aunty-ness with my latest T-shirts.

Previously I'd bought my son's favour with this Space Shuttle Field Trip long sleeved T-Shirt. I'm ashamed to say that my double needle hems have all popped on that one and it's in need of some repairs.

Never one to go back and fix old mistakes I sallied forth and made some more!


Firstly, for my nephew who hasn't had a birthday or Christmas yet without some kind of handmade gift from me, an astronaut dinosaurT-shirt.
 
 I seemed to be on the path to making everything in the Little Things To Sew book for him but decided that could get a bit obvious. Instead he gets a cotton/lycra Field Trip Raglan T
 
Unsure what to put on it I asked my kids who'd just hung out with him while we were in Mexico. P said astronaut or rocket and A said dinosaur, then they couldn't agree, so P suggested an "astrosaur".
 
 

Thankfully there are amazing artists who put their images on the web and so a Google search for "dinosaur in a spacesuit" came up with this brilliant illustration by Piya

I used Canon brand T-Shirt transfer paper and I'm really happy with how it came out although it probably needs to go through the wash to get that residue off the surface and look nice and shiny.


...And then for P. A T-shirt that he's been waiting for for a while now. He specifically wanted a black darth vader (perhaps he was worried I'd do a purple one?) with a red light saber.

This time it was a stencil. I found this fantastic stencil by YGreen on a site called DeviantArt and printed it off. Then I made my own freezer paper stencil in order to paint the front of my T-Shirt. I used the Setacolour paints again and they're fantastic.


Sadly it's a one off as the stencil was very fiddly to make and then couldn't be removed from the T-shirt without some tearing.

I'm also proud to say I think I really have mastered the art of the knit T-Shirt hem. I'm too lazy to switch to my walking foot so there are some tiny bumps at the side seams that would detract from a perfect score. But the success seems to have come from tips gleaned from the Oliver + S forum. I'm now using "woolly nylon" in the bobbin and I've bought a second bobbin casing so that I can loosen the tension right off and get a good zig zag on the back and no tightness on the front.

Oops, kids are home. Better publish so no-one sees the images

14 comments:

  1. They look super-professional, and that stencil is amazing. I have no idea what woolly nylon is, or how the second bobbin casing thing works (my machine doesn't use casings) but the hems and necklines are perfect!

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    1. Thank you Marisa. Sometime when I wish I could replace my basic machine with something fancy I read a comment like yours and realised that sometimes a simple machine that can be fiddled with is perhaps better.

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  2. An astrosaur? Who knew? :) The transfer and stencil indeed looks professionally done. Kids are going to love the tee's!

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    1. Pretty cool huh. I was dreading having to draw my own! The boys were delighted with their T-shirts, thanks.

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  3. Both shirts are amazing! I sure both boys will love them.

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    1. Thanks Sharon. Sometimes the "boy" stuff can be the most fun.

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  4. These both look fabulous :-) - super impressed with the Darth stencil (shame he's not purple though ;-) )

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    1. Thanks Justine, I kind of wish I could have done another in "girly" purple for my daughter just to rile my son

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  5. Ok, these are fantastic! I can't believe how amazing these transfers look!

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    1. Thank you. I'll have to sit on my hands to stop myself ironing transfers on everything, it was such fun.

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  6. Yes, I imagine you will be rated the best mum and best aunt tomorrow. Great work finding those images. They certainly take the t-shirts to another level

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    1. Completely outdone by the grandparents, but I was proud of myself. I've ended up subscribed to the DeviantArt site so I expect I'll be flogging a bit of street art style T-shirts for a few years yet.

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  7. Replies
    1. Thanks, that means something to me coming from you!

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