Saturday, March 24, 2012

Flip Flop T-Shirts

Another girl project. You would think I actually had a girl. Alas, I will just have to keep making projects for the wonderful little girls in my life.

My niece is having a birthday next week. Six! Wow, that means Parker will be six in just a few months. Anyway, this little girl LOVES flip flops even more than I do. So, I decided to add to her collection - in the form of some t-shirts.

Who knew that neon (aka fluorescent) would be back in after the late 80s? Not me, but I'm loving it. Here's the simple T it picked up at Target. Perfect for a little embellishment. I also needed a little scrap fabric, a small piece of ribbon (about eight inches), some fusible webbing and some sharp scissors.

See that little flip flop pattern in the pic? I just drew it out on a piece of newspaper.

Follow the directions on the fusible webbing and iron it to the back of your applique fabric. Next, pin your pattern on the fabric and cut out your pattern. I did it upside down on a second piece, so you will have a pair of flip flops (rather than two of the same foot).

To make the plain shoe look like a flip flop, I made the straps from a scrap piece of ribbon. Cut to the right size and burn the edges to keep the ribbon from fraying. Pin it in place and straight stitch it on.


Trim the excess ribbon and burn the edges once more. Place your flip flops on the shirt where you want them and peel back the paper from your webbing. Iron them in place.


I've seen appliques done with a zigzag stitch, but I prefer the look of straight stitches. Stitch around the applique and Viola! Done!


Ninety percent of the time, this monkey is wearing a tank top, so I decided to add one to the gift. Here's what I did to this simple little cami from Target.

For this one, I decided to do a reverse applique. Pull out the pattern once more and cut out a pair about 1/4 inch wider all the way around. Turn the cami inside-out and pin the flip flops (with ribbon already added with the same method) in place. The right side should be face down, since you are going to cut the top fabric out to get the reverse applique. Keep reading, you'll get it.


Straight stitch around the edges from the inside of the shirt. I left about 1/4 inch seam allowance (this is why you added to the size of the flip flip pattern). Once it's stitched, flip it right-side-out. It should look like this.


Using sharp scissors, cut the inside of the flip flop out. I made a simple cut in the middle to get the scissors in there.


Be careful not to cut too close to our stitches. Tada!


Here are both T's. I also bought a pair of pink flip flops, which I think I'll make removable flowers for, but that's a project for another day and another blog post.


wednesday's wowzers

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