Ribbon Flower T-Shirt

I was at Target last week and snapped this photo with my handy dandy phone spy camera.

Cute huh? I thought so too. I also thought I could make it just as cute. And pinker. Because, if you can, why wouldn’t you? :) Here’s mine:

(I’m finding I’m fairly self-conscious about being the model for these things I”m making. Huh.)

Now, I know that everyone out there is copying Anthro (myself included) and other great stores, but even though this is a lil ole $14.99 Target T-shirt, I think we can do it for even less, and did I mention pinker?

So let’s get started! Gather your supplies.

We’re going to need a plain T-shirt (I got mine at Walmart for $4.00), freezer paper, and ribbon. I got this sweet little ribbon at Michael’s, half price. You could also use tulle or a fabric strip. I used almost the whole roll – so almost 3 yards of ribbon.
You will also need some thread to match your ribbon and a contrasting thread for your stitched flower, and a marking pen.
I use a quilters marking pen that is a disappearing ink pen. Sometimes it’s a little enthusiastic so I have to make sure I’m not going to leave the project part-way through.

To start with, turn your t-shirt inside out. Tear off a piece of freezer paper about the size of the front of your shirt. Iron it on, waxy side down.

Turn the shirt right side out. Draw your flower on to the T-Shirt. You can use this photo as a guide. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
You want the stitched flower to be a little shorter than the ribbon flower so that you can see it once you sew your ribbon on.

Using your contrasting thread, follow your marked lines with a straight stitch. Make sure you do a small reverse or locking stitch at the beginning and ending of each line so your thread doesn’t come loose.
Also, make sure as you’re turning the shirt that the part underneath doesn’t get caught in your sewing.
Your paper will crinkle up as you go, that’s fine.

Here’s my sewn flower, wrinkles and all.

Once your stitched flower is finished, draw out your ribbon flower lines. You want them to be a little bigger than the stitched flower.

Start at the bottom of the shirt and begin sewing your ribbon on, turning your ribbon as you go when you come to tight curves. Stitch down the middle of the ribbon with the matching thread.

Keep turning the ribbon and sewing it down over all your lines. Leave the small center part for last and make a small circle of ribbon in the center for the center of the flower, sewn just like you did the rest of the flower, turning the ribbon to go around curves.

Now we arrive at the least fun portion of our little project. The paper removal.

Turn your T-shirt wrong side out again. Starting at the bottom, pull the paper off around the edges, away from your sewing lines. Working in strips, keep tearing closer and closer to the sewing. When you get to the stitched lines, hold your finger on either side of the thread with one hand and pull the paper gently with the other. Because you are working with a knit fabric, your have to be gentle of the fabric will pull with the paper or the threads will pull up loops.

Keep working slowly until all the paper is removed. Tweezers might help in the small spots.

Once you’ve finished, press the back side of your shirt. This will help with any puckering or wrinkles from the paper.

Turn your shirt right side out. Awww. So cute.

And again,

So our total is around $5 for the shirt and ribbon, everything else was on hand. Not too bad.

What do you think? I’d really like to know.

Am I the only one that copies 15 dollar items as well as 50 dollar ones? :)

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