simple embellishments that make a difference: a tutorial

I've noticed that as my spunky nena grows, I like less and less the clothing choices to buy out there, unless I spend a good fortune!  And since I'm as thrifty as one can be, well, I refuse to spend such amounts on a piece of clothing she (and her big brother) will out grow in a blink of an eye. 

What to do?  Make her some cute outfits without spending to much.  A perfect example is this plain t-shirt I picked up at Target on sale and then I added a beautiful embellishment made with scraps of fabric to spruce it up.  Now doesn't it just look pretty? 

During clearance sales I'll stock up on t's of different sizes for both of my kids (and for gifts) to use the following year.  I'll then add a little extra to make them look special, expensive even.  Ha.  I've even used white undershirts to decorate/embellish. Remember this tie t-shirt?  

Now for that tutorial:

To begin you will need:

When you choose your fabric pick fabrics that coordinate, but aren't too matchy matchy, that way you can see the contrast between each layer of the flower.  Or if you aren't looking for too much contrast you can stick to just one pattern.  Either way it will look beautiful. 

Don't get scared if you don't have an die cut machine, you can very well make a very similar flower simply by hand cutting it, that is what I would do (and still do for certain projects) before I got my machine.  In fact, I think many times the hand cut imperfections make it that much more special.

To begin:

Then layer them and sew them together by hand.

Once you've sewn all the layers together and added the button, your flower is ready to get attached to the plain t-shirt.

Spread out your t-shirt and play around until you find the right spot for your flower (that kind of sounds kinky.  Ahem.) Once you've found the perfect spot sew the flower onto the t-shirt.

When you sew the flower, to keep the bottom layer from rolling once you wash it (and to make it a bit stronger) sew about three x's around the inner part of the flower.  Like this:

You are done!  Totally easy don't you think?

I love simple projects!

 I also love how the flower starts to fray and curl a bit after every wash. 

Have a wonderful week creating! (And organizing!)