Dr. Seuss' Birthday Shirts

As often happens in my house, one of the little girls tells me that tomorrow is Dr. Seuss' birthday celebration at school and can't we run to the store to get a Seuss inspired shirt to wear? (If you have kids,  I'm guessing you've experienced this for yourself.) 

Tired, stressed and not in the mood to brave the mall where I'm almost certain we won't find any Seuss-like vestments, I try to bargain my way out of shopping.  Daughter #2 whines that she needs to have something special to wear as her teacher is going to have a very activity planned.

With a sigh, I remembered a party bag that the girls had all received when we attended my nephew's second birthday party.  His theme had been "The Cat in the Hat."  I suggested that #2 find her bag from the party...and if possible, find #3's bag too. 

So, here is the bag. It is one of those bags that are 'plastic-like' on the outside, but 'fabric-like' on the inside. You know, it's similar to the bags that many stores are currently selling to save the planet. Here you can see what I'm talking about.




Bag Front

 


Bag Back

 Not knowing if this idea I was formulating was going to work out or not, I started cutting out the characters from the bag.  The cat wasn't a problem as it had a heavy, dark outline to follow.  The Things 1 and 2 weren't as easy, so I simply cut around them.

 

Cutting Characters from Bag



Next, Daughter #2 put on the shirt (which I fortunately had for another project I hadn't gotten around to making) and we determined the best placement for the cat.  I then stitched around the edges of the character, making sure to work slowly so that the shirt wouldn't bunch up as I stitched the 'plastic-like' fabric onto the t-shirt.



Sewing

I did the same thing with the Things 1 and 2, stitching one on the front of the shirt and the other on the back. (Daughter #2 likes a busy shirt!) 

Almost Done!

It was looking cute, but it needed a little bit of 3-D, so I took my fabric paint and starting on the character and moving onto the t-shirt fabric I made whiskers on the cat and movement marks around the things. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Adding Fabric Paint



Daughter #3's shirt-back



Now that I was letting the first shirt dry, I searched for one of Daughter #3's old shirts.  I found one that had her name printed on it from school and I stitched the Things 1 and 2 onto it. (Her shirt was much smaller, so I put one character on the front,  and the other on the back.)  Then, I used my handy fabric paint and made movement marks, much like I had done with Daughter #2's shirt.

When they were dry, I heat set them and they were ready to go!  Both #2 and #3 were pleased with their Dr. Seuss shirts and their teachers were impressed with them....as not many kids had Seuss-like clothing. (After all, it isn't exactly trend setting).

Fronts of Suess Shirts

I always feel proud of my work when I'm able to upcycle something and turn it into something new.  In this case, I think the "new" shirts turned out pretty well....and were a hit with my daughters!