twice as nice

two awesome kids turned two recently and i made each a copy of my favourite number shirt.  i've got to start screenprinting one of these days, but because my t-shirt projects tend to come up on me at the last minute, it's not the time to be fiddling about!  i use iron-on transfer paper and toddler shirts from american apparel.  the numbers get pleasantly derelicte in the wash over time.  the red one needed seeing-to - of course as i was about to wrap it i noticed a little edge hadn't stuck and had to redo it!  apparently you can take off an iron-on transfer, if you have enough time, patience and really good tweezers.  

i also made a skirt to go with the red tee from some delightful apple dot fabric that i love.  instead of doing a single wide piece of elastic for the waistband, i sewed three narrow 1cm channels and fed through three strands of 8mm japanese underpants elastic.  

it made a smock-like waistband that can comfortably fit a wide range of waist sizes and will probably last an age.  it was an easier bet when the child's waist wasn't nearby to measure!  

ok, back to the baby quilt.  top pieced together, sandwiching and quilting up next.

hey, four eyes!

i am all about the quick projects lately. with our move coming up soon it feels as though all i've been doing is box packing. this can be satisfying, in a box packing kind of way - but it does pose it's challenges. like when, for example, you're in the middle of a few projects and you realize that you've packed your sewing gear in a late night packing frenzy and now that box lies at the back of a room full of boxes.

but the tuxedo t-shirt project from last week left me with a package of iron-on transfers and few ideas, so i satisfied the project fix by making cole another custom tee. specs!

he does love the novelty glasses after all, and i can't resist a good pair of nerd-chic horn-rims. the graphic was designed in illustrator, based on a photo of a pair of vintage rayban wayfarers. i had wanted to put an abbreviated snellan eye chart on the back but figured that amount of lettering would be better done with screen printing. mental note: unpack and try out screen printing kit that santa brought asap!

if you'd like to make your own personal-use specs t-shirt please feel free to use this pdf template. just save, print & iron using the instructions for your particular paper. the graphic is already reversed and printed at 100% on letter-sized paper it would be suitable for a grown-up shirt; i printed it to 70% for cole's 2t size. enjoy, four eyes. ;-)