First, Mr. Darcy and I have recently been dealing with the usual frustrations that one can expect to encounter during house-hunting. Mr. Darcy has been very proactive in working with a few realtors in the area where we will be moving, and that has proven to be much more helpful than trying to search out living places on our own. All the same...it's going to take time to find the right new home for us; this I know, and we've just begun to look within the past few weeks. Prayers and encouragement have certainly meant a lot to us in this process, as it is a major change in our life together.
Second, we've been having car issues today, and that always tends to get nerves riled and worries stirred up. Fortunately, Mr. Darcy and I tend to manage fairly well together in times like these, and that is a wonderful blessing for our marriage. Our personalities, strengths, and weaknesses balance each other out. (The Lord knew what He was doing when He made us and put us together!)
The car situation was solved--as much as it could be solved today--with the help of his truly amazing, generous, and loving parents. I could not ask for a better family-in-law than my husband's family. They are all constantly selfless, giving, understanding, and warm-hearted people, and they have truly made me one of their own in the short few years that have passed since I met them. The car will be fixed, one way or another, and in the meantime I'm again thankful. I have such a wonderful family. The stress will eventually wear off--and all of these things really aren't terrible. They're just the kind of things that I unfortunately allow to get under my skin and, to re-use an earlier phrase, ruffle my feathers.
Now, all of that having been said--how about that's enough storytelling, and let's move on to the promised repurposed t-shirt tutorial? I thought you'd agree. There are two t-shirts that I've made over recently; the t-shirt in the tutorial that follows is the second of the two, and at the end of the tutorial is photos of the first t-shirt makeover.
-Step #1: Materials-
For this shirt, I used:
a pencil
scissors
fabric pins
a needle
embroidery floss
two knit materials (a shirt and pair of shorts, in this case)
a basic white t-shirt (from Target)
First, I made up a design for the words and pictures that I wanted to attach to the shirt. Then, I used the pencil to lightly sketch the shape of a heart onto the old pink t-shirt, and the word "Paris" onto the heather-grey shorts. At this beginning step, I did not do anything to the white t-shirt yet.
-Step #2: Paris-
This step took some tricky scissors-work, I have to admit. After I sketched the outline of the word "Paris" onto the grey shorts, I cut out the word and laid it out to make certain that the letters looked all right and lay well on a flat surface. Then I cut out the shape of the pink heart from the old pink t-shirt. So, to make certain we're on the same page--the white t-shirt is the base for the design, the grey shorts compose the word "Paris", and the old pink t-shirt is used for the shape of the pink heart. Easy as pie!
-Step #3: Lots of Pinning and Some Back-Stitching-
Unfortunately, this is not a great picture, but hopefully you can see what I did here in this step. I pinned the word "Paris" and the pink heart onto the t-shirt, making certain to center them as much as possible. (Note: be careful to pin whatever you're pinning to the front of the t-shirt only! You don't want to pin through the front and back of the shirt, because you won't be able to get your hands through to sew the accents onto the shirt.) Then, I began to sew.
Using a lighter grey embroidery floss and the back stitch technique, I sewed "Paris" onto the shirt. I had to be careful to sew through the front of the shirt only--breezing along and then suddenly realizing that you've sewed the front of a garment to the back of the garment is an awful thing to have happen when sewing! But if you work slowly and carefully, you won't so much have this problem. "Slow and steady wins the race!", as the old story about the tortoise and the hare tells us, and this is true in sewing projects as well as it is a lot of the time in life.
Using the same back stitch--I definitely recommend watching the YouTube video of this sewing technique; the video is a much better means of explaining it than a pictorial diagram--I then sewed the words "holds the" and "to my", using a darker grey embroidery floss.
-Step #4: The Key and the Heart-
Having sewed the words onto the shirt, I moved on to sewing the shape of the key and adding the shape of the pink heart. I used a combination of pale yellow and metallic gold embroidery flosses for the key, and outlined the pale pink heart in a slightly darker shade of pink embroidery floss. Again, I just used the back stitch technique, and didn't worry too much about a raw edge of the fabric showing here and there. It gives the shirt a nice, worn look, and the back-stitch keeps the material from any threat of unravelling or falling off. Then, I added a little knot for the period on the end of the sentence, after the shape of the heart.
-The Completed Project-
"Paris holds the key to your heart,
And all of Paris plays a part.
Just stroll two by two
Down what we call 'la rue'
And soon all Paris
Will be singing to you!
Ooh La La
Ooh La La
Ooh La La!"
And all of Paris plays a part.
Just stroll two by two
Down what we call 'la rue'
And soon all Paris
Will be singing to you!
Ooh La La
Ooh La La
Ooh La La!"
--from the "Anastasia" soundtrack;
song composed by Stephen Flaherty
Well, truth be told...it is Mr. Darcy who truly holds the key to my heart, and he knows it. But I have a great fondness for the City of Light, even though I have never visited it. (The closest that I've been to Paris was when my family once visited a few neighboring countries...France was, unfortunately, not among them.) So, the above photo is my statement t-shirt for my love of Paris, repurposed from an old, plain white t-shirt, an old pink t-shirt, and a pair of heather-grey shorts.
And here is the first t-shirt that I made over.
I cannot actually claim responsibility for the idea of this shirt. On a few places on the internet, I had seen the idea of putting the word "y'all" on a t-shirt, with a pair of cowboy boots standing in place of the two L's, and I just had to try making my own version. Again, I used an old t-shirt for the cut-out letters and sewed them onto the brown t-shirt with embroidery floss. It's a somewhat time-consuming project, and you have to be willing to tackle a bit of sewing...but I promise you, it is fun, super inexpensive, and totally worthwhile!
Happy sewing, y'all!
À bientôt!
Cait
No comments:
Post a Comment