Easy Halloween Tees!

~ EASY HALLOWEEN TEE SHIRTS! ~

It's been WaY too long since I last blogged,

no excuses, just one or three major life events

may or may not have occurred in quick succession

(and some concurrently);

but here I am, and I'm sharing something

that is SO typically ME!

That is, I've been agitated lately that I'm

so busy driving and cooking and cleaning and

scheduling and checking and packing
and loading and unloading and moving and
sleeping and unboxing and tidying

that I have no time for crafting!

Then as I drop the boys off at the gym

at 0700 this morning, I'm thinking

"oh my gosh, it's Halloween in two days

and I should really made the kids

a tee shirt to wear on Thursday!"

What?  Who said that?

The same person who hasn't had time to

do anything in four months and now

suddenly you want to start a complete

project and have it finished today?

Yes.  I work well under pressure.

I haven't done much sewing this year,

and it's been over ten years since I added

to my fabric stash, so I just started over.

I live fifty miles from the nearest craft store

so I was stuck with Wal-mart's scaled

down version of a craft aisle.  Seriously,

there aren't even bolts of fabric or buttons

at this Wal-mart.  Ugh.  So my selection was

beyond limited.

 I (finally) found a tee shirt for my Little girl -

not my first or my second choice,

but it will do.  I'm pretty happy with the

orange ringer tee I found for my Little boy,

but the Big boys tees are just okay.

For the witch, I made a pattern.

I have the pattern scanned, but
I don't know how to add a link for you
to be able to download it.  If you would like
the pattern, just let me know and I
will email it to you.
Also, if there are any technically savvy
readers out there that wouldn't mind giving
me a quick tutorial - I would love
to learn how to add free patterns to my

crafty posts.

I should google uploading patterns.

Anyway, I made a pocket-shaped

face, hat and hat brim, and I used four coordinating

fabrics.  Not what I had in mind when I

got this little gem of an idea five hours ago,

but here goes:

Follow the directions

on the Heat n Bond(R) Ultrahold(TM)

to cut a large background piece from the

purple print fabric.

Face is cut from green

fabric, hat from black fabric, hat brim from orange.

  

Instructions say to wash garment first without

fabric softener.  I did not do this.

That would not be conducive to immediate

gratification, which I so look forward to.

I used a hot iron to adhere the background

shape to the center of the tee shirt.

Guess what?  I decided to use rick-rack as

hair, and I didn't want to glue it.

So I ironed the rick-rack onto the Heat n Bond

and it worked BeAuTiFuLlY!!

Guess what else.  When I removed the 

paper backing from the adhered rick-rack,

I was able to pull on the attached Heat n Bond

and it just came right off!

I was prepared to use scissors and everything.

No need.  I love wonders.  May they

never cease.  Ever.

I attached the face, then arranged the

rick-rack hair and adhered each piece with the iron.

  

I added the hat, then the hat brim.

It still needed something so I cut out 

a wart and a star for the hat brim.

I have some Swarovski crystals that are

just calling out to me - they

think they would look amazing somewhere

on this cute little witch, and I agree.

PS I added the eyes and the mouth

with a black paint pen.

NEXT!

I rushed through the Little's shirts

because I really wanted to get this up on my blog,

but have a better plan for the Big's shirts.

I'm going to cut out all my skull pieces, use 

the hot iron to adhere them to the fabric

that I want to use as a background,

THEN I will cut around for the background shape!

I just had a little trouble with

the spacing ... and I'm a little OCD so I

can deal with it on the Little's tees but I will be

much more precise when making the Big's tees!

Make a pattern for the background piece

by tracing around the skull design and leaving

about a 1/4" space.

I used the green as the background.

As you can see, I had some difficulty getting

all my skull pieces to line up inside

the background piece.  I had to do some

trimming.  I wasn't thrilled, but it worked.

I started with the top of the skull first.

I sort of got that lined up and pressed it down,

then I added the rest of the face pieces

and each bone, trimming and pressing

one piece at a time.

Love!!  I'm going to go pack up my

crystals now and my E6000 - I'll have four hours

at dance class tonight to sit and glue on

stones to make this witch sparkle!!

Peace and Happy Halloween Tees!

;)