Tee Time

I love making personalized gifts for people. I am in a busy season of life with 2 toddlers so I don't get to do this as much as I like but my new favorite thing is making applique t-shirts.

I thought I'd do a quick tutorial even though this may be so obvious. I apologize if you start to drift off!!
I made this one for our friend's little boy....wow...sorry for the blurry picture!



1. Print the letters out in Microsoft Word in a font you like, making sure it is the correct size to fit the t-shirt. I cut out each letter from the paper, pinned the paper letter on the camo fabric, and re-cut each letter from the fabric. I usually cut the fabric slightly larger than my paper letter by about 1/4". I do this only because it is easier (for me) to not cut exactly on the line of the paper letter and make so many intricate corner cuts.

2. Cut a large rectangle of white jersey t-shirt material as a "background" for the camo letters.



3. I used fusible tape or stitch witchery to adhere the camo letters to the white jersey fabric to make it easier to sew them on later. Just place a damp washcloth over the camo letters (stitch witchery between camo and white jersey) and apply a hot iron to get it to stick.

4. Now, the patience builder. I carefully and slowly stitched the letters for extra reinforcement. This takes a little practice and patience but you just stop every few stitches and turn your fabric so you can sew a line down the middle of each letter. See, if you look close, it's not perfect but it does the job. Camo letters aren't moving now.






5. Attach the camo letters/white jersey piece to your t-shirt with the stitch witchery method again. (The great thing about doing it layered like this is if you get this far only to mess up, you haven't ruined the t-shirt, you just start over with the name again!---or you give up---but don't do that---remember I said it takes a little patience---you can do this!)

6. Ok, almost done. Now you do a reinforcing stitch to attach the white jersey background onto the t-shirt. Sew as close as you can around the name on the white jersey.

7. Trim off the excess around the outline stitch very carefully (preferably with small scissors) so you don't clip the main t-shirt, as I have done before....unfortunately



And here you go!


When you wash it, the edges of the letters will probably fray a bit but I think it adds charm and ruggedness to the look. It is a little boy's camo shirt, after all. We're going for a rugged look here. Here is another one...




The possibilities are endless with this basic concept.

I made this one for Landon's sister....



It's the same concept but I wanted the edges of this elephant to really fray so I cut the elephant about 1/2" larger than the template, then snipped flaps every 1/4" without cutting through your outline stitch. This snipping method is good when you're using cotton or poplin material. It helps the edge to fray



Then when you wash it several times it will fray up (kind of like a rag quilt, if you've ever made one of those it's similar)



I used the same concept to make this shirt for my daughter. This one has been washed several times so it is really nice and frayed.



I used corduroy for this one and it frays nicely without snipping around the edges. Just a straight stitch to sew the little A to the large A first. Then another straight stitch to sew the large A to the shirt.



Partying at

PS - These lovely ladies featured my frenchy benchy at their linky party recaps! Thanks so much

Under the table and Dreaming

Primitive and Proper

For the Love of Grain Sacks

Speaking of grain sacks.....I have had a THANG for grainsacks for a while. A while ago I bought this red-striped grain sack from this seller on Etsy.com.

I had made two pillows out of it for my sofa but when I got tired of them on my sofa, I turned them into table runners.





I just love the texture. This one is a medium weight and so yummy....


I recently bought another sack from the same seller because I wanted an accent pillow for my son's bed.

I had planned to cut it up to make a smaller pillow but when I got it I just hated to cut it in case I wanted to use it for something else. It also has a beautiful texture but is thicker.



My mom had an extra king sized pillow she gave me and it fit the sack perfectly!

I just folded the ends under since the length of the sack was longer than the pillow




Now it's a nice home for my little guy's little guys...



I'm particularly liking the red and blue striped ones Christina has in her shop now. Makes me want to do something Fourth of July-y!

There are just so many things you can do with these things it makes my crafty brain spin!
Check out this post from Willow Decor for some good eye-candy and ideas :)
PS - I realize that post is several years old but I am still a big fan of this style!

Frenchy Benchy

I bought this sad bench a while ago. The lady I bought it from wasn't planning to sell it until she had painted and reupholstered it. As she talked, all I heard was "red....velvet.....floral" and I knew I had to save this poor bench from certain embarassment.




It looks worse than it really is. The springs and seat part were in good shape. I knew it just needed a paint job and some foam/batting/upholstery on top. That's something easily remedied with my handy dandy staple gun.

First I gave it a coat of Valspar's Sea Salt Blue...love this color. Then I dry brushed my Annie Sloan's Old White Chalk Paint over the blue. A coat of Clear Hannant's Wax. Then a little strategic sanding (which ended up letting the weird green peek through but I rolled with it). Then a bit of Fiddes & Sons Jacobean wax. Using the waxes is a learning process but I've found I like the finish and control these waxes give you.

On to the upholstery....

I cut 1/2" high density foam and 1 layer of quilt batting to size.



Then staple it all down. I don't think I even bothered to staple the foam. I just stapled the batting over the foam to keep it in place.



Then staple the fabric down. This is the part that makes me sweat....literally. I usually staple in the middle of each side, pulling tight as I go. All that fabric pulling is a strength work out. Then staple all in between.


The corners can be tricky. I usually start with a staple in the corner, then start stapling to either side of that staple and work out toward the sides (does that even make sense?)



Stapling can drive one crazy but I was just thankful I didn't have to contort my body like I did for the french chairs. Now that was major work.

Next on to the finishing touch...the piping. Now, I was prepared to make my own piping like I did for my daughter's headboard. However, the fabric I bought was a bit thick. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the weave and hand reminds me of an antique grainsack. It has a beautiful texture. I tried to make piping and it just wouldn't go through the machine. I couldn't even fit the fabric wrapped piping under the presser foot. What to do?? I cut strips of 1.25" fabric, folded it in thirds, and sewed down the middle.....



Then hot glued the trim strip to the edge. Not quite double welting but with the thick fabric it was the best I could think of using materials I had at home and without using that gimp stuff. Not that I'm against that...I used it on my french chairs but I didn't want to use it for this.

If I get brave I might do a stencil on the top....maybe a monogram or a simple graphic of some sort...I feel like it's begging me to do something to the fabric but I'm so nervous to touch it! What do you think? Will I ruin it?

Now....where to put my little bench??? It keeps moving to different places in the house. I just can't decide

Showing off at:

The Easiest Party and A Flipping Good Time!

I've been MIA because after Easter I realized I needed to regroup quickly to plan the kiddos' joint birthday parties. So behind! I wanted it to be nice but low maintenance.

I ordered some very cute invites from Pink Pickle Studios on etsy.com. One of the few sellers who has personalized gymnastics invites but I think they turned out really cute :)

I always get these type of invites printed at overnightprints.com. You kind of have to do this in advance to take advantage of the cheapest shipping option but because they run awesome promotions you can usually get 50 cardstock invites for around $12-$15 including shipping and envelopes! I know, wacky, huh?



Pink Pickle Studios also made a sheet of printable party cirlces which I turned into cupcake toppers. These are so easy to do. You print the page of graphics on cardstock, punch out using a 2" scallop punch, then stick a wooden skewer between 2 circles and glue.

I'm kinda obsessed with cupcake toppers? I made them last year for John's 3rd birthday and I had to do it again this year.

I thought I would go all Martha, baking and icing my own cupcakes but in the end I bought them all baked and iced from Kroger. Then I did a little Photoshop action on the party circles and used the same circles to make thank you labels for the party favors. I know I probably should have purchased thank you circles but I went into a panic at the 11th hour when I decided I needed a cute label for the favors, like, yesterday.


 I ordered these cute plates and napkins that generally coordinated with it all from this website. Gender neutral, blue, pink, and gray colors... The 2 gold medalists had a blast on their big day....and I only had to tackle one kid birthday party this year! Phew!I am certainly looking forward to girly-themed parties and fun boy parties in the future but with the kids having similar preschool age friends/siblings and 35-40 invitees we just went with ease (and air-conditioning) this year.

Burlap Pillows

I finally got around to making these burlap pillows for my french chairs.



They were fairly easy envelope-closure pillows with a 1" flange.

1) Sew right sides together
I usually sew my pillows 1-1.5 inches smaller than my pillow. I like the filler pillow to fit snugly inside and not have a flabby, flappy cover. These are 14x20 lumbar pillows so the rectangle I made was 13.5"x19.5". Keeping in mind that sewing the 1" flange will make the pillow even smaller.

2) Turn the pillow right side out

3) Iron the pillow edges flat

4) Sew a stich 1" from the edge all the way around.

Hopefully that wasn't so confusing?! I wish I had taken more pictures of my steps...

I used a stencil, flat stencil sponge brushes, and some antique brown craft paint to make the design on each pillow.



The pillows really complete the look of the chairs



For those learning to sew, I bet if you do a YouTube search on "how to sew envelope closure pillows" you will find some good video guides? I can't tell you how much sewing I've learned from YouTube!