Toddler Valentine Shirts Tutorial

I wanted to put a craft spotlight on our MOPS bulletin board this month and I wanted to offer something the moms could do for Valentine’s Day.

I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for on Pinterest or Google, so I made my own and took lots of pictures. This is my attempt at a tutorial for creating an applique shirt for a toddler boy or girl for Valentine’s.

(Click on the pictures for a larger image.)

Supplies:

I got EVERYTHING at Hobby Lobby:
* Plain t-shirt
* Felt (just a small amount is all you need, I got extra in case I messed up)
* Wonder Under Fusible Webbing (again…you only need a very small amount. I got a yard because I will use it for other things, but 1/4 yard [9 inches] is plenty)
* Pencil and Paper to draw your design out
Not pictured –
* Scissors
* Iron and Ironing board
* Coordinating embroidery thread
* Embroidery needle

To get started you have to know what you want to put on the shirt. I didn’t want anything too “sweet” for the boy shirt and nothing too “sassy” for the girl shirt. Simple is what I like best and it’s the easiest to pull of most of the time. I looked around online for inspiration and didn’t find exactly what I wanted but I noticed a card with a robot on it and thought I’d follow that line.

I drew these out by hand straight from my head. You can find lots of images online so don’t be intimidated. Just find something that doesn’t have a lot of detail so that you aren’t frustrated by the cutting and stitching later.

Cut out the shapes. Since I did different colors I cut the heart right out of my little robot. Sounds evil doesn’t it. I promise no actual robots were harmed in this process.

Then you move on to the Wonder Under. I cut out small pieces of it that are larger than my shape but smaller than the felt piece. That way when I’m ironing the first side onto the felt I’m not accidentally ironing it onto my ironing board cover. Cause it gets sticky see.

I am not going to type out all the instructions on how to use the product. If you buy the product it comes with instructions and you should use them.

Trace your shapes onto the paper side of your fuzed Wonder Under. For the XOXO shirt I actually did this wrong because in order for the pattern to come out just like I had drawn it, I would have needed to trace it from the reverse side. For this particular pattern it didn’t matter because I could applique it onto the shirt upside down and it would still be the same message. It really wouldn’t have mattered for the robot either, but just for the sake of doing it right, I traced it with the drawing side down. If I were doing a letter like “R” it would make a huge difference.

But I wasn’t.

After tracing…do something obvious. Like cut them out. You will want some good cuttin’ shears for this. Felt is not fun to cut with dull scissors.

Lay them out on the shirt in the way that you want them to look. With the paper side down on the shirt.

Then, if your iron is hot and your shapes are fitting like a glove, peel the paper backing off the Wonder Under. This reveals the other sticky side of the webbing which will fuse to your shirt when you iron it.

Isn’t that cool?

Use a damp cloth and put your iron on the wool setting and these will stick like glue. It’s pretty much awesome. I like to use another fabric in between the iron and the felt anyway, because I don’t like cleaning sticky residue or burned felt hairs off my iron. And I really don’t like to realize it’s there only after reheating my iron and burning black residue onto my husband’s work shirt. Not that that’s ever happened.

Look…they look finished already.

But they’re not.

I got them ironed on and my mess cleaned up just in time to go get my kids from school, come back home, get them dressed for karate, put some dinner in the crock-pot, pack up some time killers and head out the door to sit at a dojo for an hour and a half. I took my little project with me so the next few pictures are using my little point and shoot camera that resides in my purse.

See…dojo.

I used a silver colored embroidery thread on the robot and did a very simple stitch around the perimeter of the robot shape. It wasn’t hard, but this camera is AWFUL for stuff like this. I deleted as many photos as I kept.

I did a slightly different stitch around the heart. Nothing difficult, just different. If you’re intimidated by the stitching you might look at this website for different types of stitches and how to do them. Me, I just make it up as I go along for something like this. I have done REAL embroidery and I have a GREAT book on different stitches, but this is extra, it’s not supposed to be perfect for something like this.

I also did little knots for the eyes and used the pink floss for the robot mouth (you’ll see it later). I finished up the robot shirt there at the dojo, got all packed up again and headed home to eat dinner, finish homework and get the boys all ready for bed.

I did the rest while I watched the first episode of Downton Abbey season 3. It just seemed right. *sigh*

All done. Pretty cute, I think. Too bad I don’t own any toddlers, or any girls. I suppose I’ll just give these away…at least I got pictures.