...All I Got Was This T-Shirt

I've always had a desire to learn how to quilt. Recently, a woman I go to church with offered to share ALL of her quilting wisdom and knowledge with me. I'm hooked! And then one day, she introduced me to my new friend. You know those friends that you instantly know you will love. That's how I feel.

Meet Wonder Under:

You can find this magic at any fabric store. How I've gotten this far in life without this little buddy, I do not know. But I'm in love with what I can create with this. My latest joy is found in T-shirts.

I love to personalize things. I get ideas in my head of what I want, but never can find exactly that same thing in the stores. Now I can take care of it myself. Let me give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

That's right. I made those. And what's more amazing...I made them in a matter of minutes. Really!

Meg's turning 8 next week. Guess what the birthday girl will be wearing. Her new school shirt for The Stars can also double as a 4th of July shirt. And my little Cookie can wear that letter shirt to declare the first letter in her name. How cute is that!

Here's the trick:

I bought the shirts at Target (of course). They were each under $5. The little girl shirts are on sale for $3.50 this week.

I had lots of fabric left over from quilting, but did buy the star fabric for just what I had in mind.

I found the letters and shapes and used Word to get it to the right size that I wanted for each one.

Instructions for using the Wonder Under is on the packaging. I'll give a quick visual and a few tips.

Start with tracing your shape onto the paper. I always put the different shapes right next to each other to conserve to make my Wonder Under go farther.

If you are tracing letters or a shape that is not symmetrical, you will need to trace the shape backwards onto your paper. Then when you iron it to your fabric (on the wrong side of your fabric), it will face the right direction (on the right side of your fabric).

I then cut out the shape. I like to leave a little edge around the shape. That way when it gets ironed onto my fabric, the glue on the paper will adhere to all of the fabric that I need.

Then:

1. Iron on the wrong side of fabric.

2. Cut out the shape along the lines

3. Peel of the backing of the Wonder Under

4. Iron the shape to shirt exactly where you want it.

Here's a tip to find the middle of the T-Shirt. I fold my shirt in half. I then iron it in half. When I open it back up, I can see the middle to line up my shape exactly where I want it.

Now, Wonder Under says that you can be done at this point. You can wash your shirt and it shouldn't come off.

But, if you're like me, you were the kid that still did the Extra Credit in school even though your grade may not have needed it.

So if you want to take it to the next level, you can stitch around your shape.

* You can do a blanket stitch or straight stitch by hand.

* You can do a straight stitch or zig zag stitch with a machine.

* You can use a buttonhole stitch with your machine

(You may want to practice on an extra piece of fabric before you try to stitch on your finished product).

My machine actually comes with an applique stitch, so I like to use that.

*** IdEaS ***

After seeing Melissa's bandana skirt, I though it would be fun to make a star shirt out of bandana material to match.

You could also make a shirt to match Noreen's No Sew Tutu.

These would make a great Birthday gift. That personal touch. It would make for great pictures for the Year that they are turning.

To make the flower, I printed an "o" and made 7 circles (6 for petals and 1 for the middle).