Upcycled T-shirt and Bye Bye Mullets!

So I have two “little” girls who happen to be “big” girls.  They are 5 but wear a size 8.  (I’m 5’8” and have been this height since 6th grade so I guess they come by it naturally.)  Anyway, I have a hard time finding little girl clothes and patterns in big girl sizes.  I have to hunt extra hard for princess dresses or pre-school appropriate character clothes in bigger sizes.  Thankfully, many pattern makers are catching on and many little girl patterns are now going up to size 12 rather than 8.  The girls have had these Zoe shirts (ya know from Sesame Street) since they were two.  They love them because they were made special for them with their names on them.  I bought them big so they fit great for a couple of years.  I was recently switching over clothes in their drawers for the winter season and came across them.  I asked the girls if they would still be interested in wearing them if mommy could figure out a way to put Zoe on a bigger shirt and they very excitedly said “yes”!  Here is what I came up with.  It’s not fancy but it works.

Materials: Outgrown shirt with the image you want to save

Larger shirt to transfer to

Pellon Wonder Under

Sewing Machine etc.

Iron

 

First, I cut out Zoe’s face and was just able to fit a circle shape out of the old shirt.  You could of course do a square or just cut out a  small border around the image too.

 

Next, I followed the instructions on the Wonder Under.  Basically, you iron it onto the back of your image with a damp cloth over top.  Next, peel the paper backing off of the Wonder Under and iron the image onto your shirt with a damp cloth over top.

I wanted to make sure that the image was really secure so I just did a straight stitch around the circle.  Don’t worry about doing a satin or zigzag stitch because knit won’t fray.

Tada!  That’s it.  Super quick and super easy!  You have now upcycled one of your child’s favorite shirts and they can get a few more years out of it.  I hope this comes in handy for you too.  Please let me know if you try it.

 

When I told the girls that I wanted to take pictures of their shirts for my blog this is what I got.  I said, “Girls I can’t even see your shirts.”  They say in unison, “Mommy we want to hug!”  “O.K. girls.”    :)

On a totally random note, my boys will be two next month and have never had their hair cut!  It was getting seriously out of hand.  Can we say, “MULLETS”!  I kept putting it off because my mother said that it was cute and that they wouldn’t look like babies if I cut it.  Well guess what, they still look like babies just not PWT babies.  :)

 

Before                                                            After

Handsome Boy!

  

Before                                                               After

Another Handsome Boy!

Nice face! :)