I am excited to say that I have my first free downloadable (is that a word?) pattern for you! Now, I know that this shirt is kind of girly…so if you have a boy, you could substitute the seashell for a cute crab or fish. Let’s get started!
You will need:
- A plain t-shirt that fits your little one: We bought this one at TJMaxx for $3 or $4.
- A fun scrap of cotton fabric
- A scrap of quilt batting
- A fabric pen, or dressmaker’s carbon paper
If doing the detailing by hand: embroidery floss, and embroidery needle
Or a machine that will do all of that for you 🙂
The free pattern
Print the pattern and cut out the seashell. Lay it on the cotton fabric and cut two seashells. Next cut one seashell out of the batting.
Make a little sandwich out of these pieces – fabric, batting, fabric. Pin them together. Trace the quilting design onto your fabric (the dotted lines on the pattern). Use your machine to “quilt” along these lines. You can use the regular stitch, just be sure all 3 layers are moving at the same time. Or, of course, you can hand quilt it. Some fun hand-quilting tips here.
Next, trace the words onto the shirt, using the carbon paper, or write your own using a fabric pen
Embroider the words.
Great embroidery tips here.
Place the seashell underneath the words. Use a blanket stitch, or a zig-zag
stitch around the edge of the seashell to attach it to the t-shirt. Good job!
Now you have a fun new beachy t-shirt for your little one!
