journal entry:
Memorial Day is coming fast. And with it comes our family. Sons and daughters and “in-laws” and grandchildren. For many days. That means lots of noise and food and mess and FUN. All made better by bright and happy personalized shirts . . . made by me. DON”T TELL. They are a surprise for the kids.
Here is what I did:
- Bought shirts for $2.50 cents each at Hobby Lobby.
- Cut the itchy tags out of each neck.
- Assembled bright and happy fabric scraps to choose from.
- Bought a roll of Heat Bond Ultra-Hold at Wal-Mart. $5.97 for 5 yards.
- Used my Silhouette Cutting Machine to cut the shapes and the letters as explained next.
Now, I have to say that I intended to follow Silhouette’s instructions for cutting fabric but they don’t sell pure iron-on backing. Their products require sewing and I certainly wasn’t going to sew these little things on every shirt. So I experimented. I cut a piece of fabric the size of the animal I wanted to cut and also a piece of the heat bond. I ironed the heat bond with the right side of the fabric up and the paper on the heat bond showing on the back against the ironing board. I put the fabric face up on my Silhouette cutting mat and used the “heavy card stock” setting to cut. It was a breeze. I peeled the whole thing off at once and separated the cut image from the scrap parts. I peeled the paper off of the back of the cut applique and positioned the applique on the shirt. Using a iron set on the cotton setting and applying the iron for only about 5-ish seconds, I ironed the fabric applique onto the shirt. Then I repeated the steps with the fabric I had chosen for the name. Always with the iron on the fabric which was always fabric-side up.
I bought sew-on googly eyes for the animals so they wouldn’t come off and no one could eat them. I LOVED being able to cut and iron-on so quickly and cut my letters from any font I wanted to use ! I can think of a million things to do with my cutting machine. I just need more time. Goof-off time.
It won’t be long and the kids will be wearing the shirts and I will be running around after them taking pictures. When it comes to taking pictures of the whole group together, I will need bribes. Serious bribes. And mommies. Lots of mommies.
EVERYONE KEEP THE SECRET !
Bribes and mommies work well.