Earth Day Shirts with Tutorial

Happy Earth Day everyone!  To celebrate I made my daughter and I matching shirts for school.  She is pretty excited about it.  And I'm not going to lie...I am too.  They turned out adorable.  I made a tutorial to go with it.  There are a ton of freezer paper and applique tutorials out there so who knows how good this one is in comparison...But this is one stop shopping...a two for one special...that's my kind of tutorial.  : )  Enjoy!

1. Get out all your stuff:

Shirt

Wonder Under

Fabric Paint

Sponge Brush

Felt

Print out of design 

(I google imaged the design **disclaimer** There were no "copyrights" that I could find on the image so I figure it's fair game)

Scissors
Pencil

All the following is not pictured - whoops

Freezer Paper

Sharpie

Iron and Ironing Board
Sewing Machine (you could hand stitch this if you wanted)
Coordinating Thread

2. Turn design over and trace picture with a sharpie (or other dark marker) on the back side of paper (so you're getting a backwards image...If you've got some mad skills on the computer - print out the backwards image (I do not have mad skills...I trace).

3. Now trace that backwards image on the smooth side of your "Wonder Under".

4. Trace and cut out your freezer paper stencil.

5. Iron your "Wonder Under" onto the felt.  Make sure that your heat setting is not too hot and that you stay on the Wonder Under. The iron will melt the felt (I use the cheep-o felt sheets not the awesome wool kind).  OR you can do what the package says and use a thin towel on top  of the felt and Wonder Under (but where's the fun in that?).

6. Iron down your Freezer Paper stencil onto your T-shirts. Place a piece of Freezer Paper on the inside of the shirt (plastic side up) so there is no paint bleeding. Make sure to iron it well so the paint doesn't go outside the lines!

7.  Now apply your paint.  You will notice on the big heart that there is a little bit of bunching going on.  Don't worry about it...It usually works out just fine in the end.  If worst comes to worst it will look a little "vintage". perfect.  Thinner t-shirts like that one are just hard to manage because they are so  stretchy.

 

8. Now wait 24 hours....if you can...I made it 20 hours then I couldn't stand it any more and I heat set it.

9. "Heat set" your painted area - heat iron according to fabric and iron for 30 seconds on each side. 

**I use a paper towel (or very thing fabric) as a barrier between the iron and the paint**

 

10. Now turn inside out and wash and dry your shirt according to directions.

11. While your shirt is washing and drying cut out felt pieces.

 

11. Once your shirt is nice and washed and dried, take off the backing of the felt continents, line it up where you want them to go and iron into place.  Use that paper towel again because the cheep felt will melt and all your hard work will be wasted...or maybe it will turn out looking "vintage"...  but odds are you'll ruin your iron...don't you think?

 

 12.  Last but not least: Stitch around the border of the continents to secure them in place...and to give it a final touch!

  

 13.  That's it! You're done! Now go and show the world that you love the Earth!

p.s. I just couldn't stop at the shirts.  I had to top of my daughter's outfit with a cute skirt.  It's the "Simple Skirt" from Made.  And it really is simple.  I whipped one out in 20 minutes last night.  awesome.

xoxo

{elyse}