Baby Hat and Pants from a T-shirt

I spent last week tackling my upcycle clothing pile, which was getting too big.

I selected about eight pieces of clothing that needed to be turned into something new, and worked my magic.  One of those articles of clothing was a gray turtleneck that was never worn, but was in great condition.  It became a new pair of baby pants, which happen to be one of my favorite little things for baby boys, and an adorable top knot hat with a Mom Tattoo Applique (another of my favorite things).

For the hat, I printed off Prudent Baby's Top Knot Hat Pattern.  I aligned the original hem of the turtle neck, with the hem line on the pattern.  Cut out the hat, leaving the side seams of the turtle neck intact for the baby pants.

I followed her instructions, minus the cuff on the hat, and the hat was finished in no time flat.  Then, just to dress it up a bit, I added a small  Mom Heart Tattoo Applique.  I love it so much more than I ever did the turtle neck.

 As I mentioned, I preserved the side seams of the shirt, and cut out my infant pants using the existing hem as well.  I added a faux fly, crotch and leg seams, and the casing, and these were done in minutes also.  So easy.  I'm thinking that I need to make at least one more pair of these.  Do you want a tutorial?

Then, just for good measure, I whipped up a Mom Tattoo appliqued body suit to complete the look.

You can find my PDF file applique template here.

Thanks for reading, and I have more upcycled goodness to come.  It was a productive week.

Interactive Moster Tee By Stacey of Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy

I'm thrilled to have our Stacey of Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy, as our guest blogger today.  She's the mother of, you guessed it, three boys.  Her blog is filled to the brim with great boy projects, activities, and mother approved boy books. The best part about her projects is that they have the boy in mind.  Her projects are fun to view, and even more fun for the boy receiving them.  If you're the mother of a boy, be sure to stop by her blog.  She's very clever, and I'm so happy to have her sharing today's project.

Hi there! I'm Stacey and I blog over at Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy! I'm very excited to be here to share for Toptoberfest.  With three boys running around, most of my sewing falls into the boy category.  I've found that the secret to spicing up their wardrobes and convincing them to wear the "mommy made" clothing, is a variety of t-shirts.  And if the boys get to pick the themes, all the better.  Star Wars, vikings, ninjas, and personal jokes all end up in the laundry time and time again. 

Today I'm sharing my tutorial for an interactive monster t-shirt.  Post naming, I'm thinking I should have gone with "perpetually changing monster t-shirt" or something along those lines but while I've gotten the hang of sewing, clever t-shirt names allude me.  Regardless of what you call it, it's sure to be a hit with your little one.

Supplies:
t-shirt
wool felt scraps (I prefer 100% wool.  It tends to be more expensive but washes with much less pilling)
Velcro
Heat and Bond or other fusible interfacing
coordinating thread

Step 1:  Cut pieces from wool felt.  Before cutting the body, eye stems and horns, follow package directions to apply fusible interfacing.

Step 2:  Cut small squares of interfacing for the eyes and mouth pieces.  Iron on per package instructions.  When you are deciding on monster "accessories" keep in mind that you'll want at least two different color combinations of each facial feature in order to mix and match. The boys helped me to choose which colors and mouth features they wanted for their monsters. I find they are immeasurable more excited about a piece of clothing if they get to make choices during the project.

Step 3:  Iron the body, horns, and eye stems to your shirt per the interfacing package directions.

Step 4:  Sew around the edge of each piece in order to applique it to the shirt.  For the eye stems, I made three rows of stitching.

Step 5:  Cut a positive/negative piece of Velcro for each facial feature and each place where you want it to attach.  Sewing a rectangle around the outside edge, attach the all of the positive pieces to the monster body and the negative pieces to each "accessory".

That's it!  You are now able to mix and match to create a new monster each time you wear it.  One note:  if you have a clothing sensitive kinda kid (like my middle one) you may want to be sure they wear an undershirt underneath or place a piece of fusible-cut away stabilizer behind the shirt when you sew on the Velcro pieces.

Here's just three of our monstrous creations.  My oldest two thought this was such a great idea, I've been commissioned to sew two more.  Next time around we'll play with the body shape.  Personally, I've always been partial to the "Monsters Inc." monster type.

One word of warning, the line between the monster's facial features and one's own, may begin to become confused.

Here's hoping your little one has a better monster face than mine.  Maybe he thought I meant he was supposed to make the face he makes when he sees a scary monster.

Thanks for having us, Tricia.  The boys and I would get a huge kick out of seeing your monster shirts, so please feel free to stop on over and share if you decide to make one.  Have a great day!









Wasn't that great!  What little boy wouldn't love getting dressed in the morning, when it involved creating a one of a kind monster face.  Love it!  Thanks Stacey for sharing your great project.

Upcycled Hats from T-shirts

Cheri's Upcycled T-shirt hats seem to be spreading through blogland like wildfire.  Her versions are so cute and I absolutely love all of the little details that she added. When I saw her post I knew that I had to try it out.

So here is my attempt at making the upcycled t-shirt hat.  I think that it turned out fairly well. I wanted to make it to go along with his new raglan sleeve shirt.  I didn't zig zag all of the edges like Cheri, and I don't miss it all that much. I used knit ribbing instead of t-shirt "tape".  It seemed to adjust to the curves well.

I was really pleased that Clark left his hat on as long as he did.  Normally they are ripped off and thrown to the ground in three seconds flat.  Yesterday he wore it the entire time we were in the post office.

After making Clark's hat I started wishing that I had one of my very own.  So I repurposed a couple of shirts and made one for myself.  I used this covered button tutorial from No Big Dill.  For my hat I cut down on the length of the ear flaps (I could have cut them down much more).  My hat strips were about 21" long and the domed piece was 4 1/2" tall, and the middle section was about 21/2" tall.  Visit Cheri at I am Momma Hear Me Roar for her full tutorial.

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