Wednesday, August 12, 2009

How to Applique a Cover-Up

At our house, we have an ongoing pile of T-shirts with permanent stains...fit for my husband to use as rags in his woodshop. I don't mind tossing my hubby's old undershirts in the pile when they are past their prime, but when it's a shirt of mine, that is also fairly new, it gets me pretty irritated. Here's a plain white tee that I love because the length is "just riiiight"...a few days ago I removed it from the dryer to find a big ugly rust stain on the front of it. No idea where it came from...So here's my plan for covering it up...

Select a shape you'd like to use as the applique/cover-up patch. I drew this barn swallow, but you can print some clip art or even do a silhouette of your kiddo...random circles might be cool too...endless possibilities here.

Select a fabric print that would look nice with your silhouette. You can tell what it will look like by holding it up to the light and letting the fabric design shine through your template. I decided these Pop Garden flowers were too big and random to use for this project, so I chose a good "all-over" print from Moda's Arcadia instead...
I like to trace my template on the back of the fabric with a washable pen or pencil. Make sure you decide ahead of time which way you want your applique to face on the shirt and use the correct side of your template to trace.
Next, I like to roughly cut 1/4" around my tracing, to save my scraps for something else.
Using some fabric Heat n' Bond or iron-on webbing, I place my shape on the webbing paper, "sticky" side up (follow the directions on your product package).
To avoid getting the webbing "goo" on your iron, place a piece of wax paper or butcher paper on top, iron according to your webbing directions (I press for about 3 seconds, making sure to press all areas). Peel the butcher paper off.
When you flip it over, you can still see the lines of your tracing. Cut out your shape.
Peel off the backing paper carefully...

Iron the applique to the shirt, covering up the ugly spot. In my case, I should have chosen darker fabric because my rust stain got even uglier from the iron heat and shows through the cover up... just a little.

Set your sewing machine to a zig zag stitch, with the stitch length being close together (I set mine to a little less than 1, because I wanted my fabric to show through the thread a little.)

Lastly, make sure to take a goofy picture, so we all can see your handiwork! Enjoy your "NEW" shirt!

15 comments:

Vana said...

amazing!I'll have to try it!

AmandaHall said...

This is such a great Idea!

Stacy Disarrayed said...

That's awesome Ariel!

One Flew Over said...

That is one FANTASTIC IDEA!!!

Angela Nash said...

Your fix looks amazing! We have that same pile at our house - I should make good use of this idea! Thanks

Kerri said...

LOVE the idea of appliquing a boo-boo on a shirt for us! I've done it do my girls jeans and shirts, but definately think I need one too now! :)

You look so cute taking the picture!

Kris said...

great idea and fantastic result! I love the Arcadia fabric and bird you picked!

Also, your Willard fabric arrived today and it is even better in person!! Thank you!

Jackie said...

Looks great! I actually like the placement. Way to go for turning a would-be disaster into something creative.

STEPHANIE. said...

super cute!

tasha said...

great idea....pretty bird!

Pamela said...

I have a few of these shirts that could use an applique makeover. Such a great idea. Thanks

Unknown said...

Awesome! I just saw one of your designs on Spoonflower...I like your style! Awesome designer!

cathleen said...

How very pretty your shirt is and I enjoyed your photos showing the process of making it.

Mel said...

My daughter has a couple of shirts I could save using this technique. Thank you so much for sharing!

Unknown said...

wow,lovely idea...
Thanks for sharing...

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Michell
Home Security Systems no CREDIT CHECK everyone is approved