Shirt Rescue, Take Two

Again I find myself staring at another shirt in dire need of rescue. Same owner, different trauma. This time the shirt faced torture by bleach. ("Children--one last time: do not clean the bathroom in your good school clothes! Or THIS may happen to you!" With graphic visuals, of course.) So now it's a new-ish (naturally, since old clothes never get ruined. EVER.) turquoise tee with a trail of white spots running down the front. What's a provident mom to do?

Well, if I had dye in the studio (hahahaha) I could strip the color and re-dye it. Sadly, no dye--all used up in projects previous to this blog. But I do have lots of fabric. (See photo above for confirmation of this statement.) So let's take bleached-out lemons and make cheerful lemonade.

I found two fabrics I liked. One--appropriately enough --was left over from my wedding dress. (Considering that's the project that has made all subsequent projects necessary and possible.) Another was a remnant from pajamas I made last Christmas.

I fused both fabrics to iron-on interfacing, to make sure when they were cut and later washed they wouldn't fray to shreds, since there would be no edge treatment. Then I traced circles (with the classic sewing tool, a drinking glass) of three different sizes, and cut them out.

I made flowers from the circles--each circle becoming a petal. I folded each circle into quarters, and pressed them. With washing they've unfolded a bit, just enough to give additional dimension to the petals. Then I arranged the petals, four to a flower, to cover the bleach spots. (If you can't beat them, hide them in plain sight!) I used my trusty fabric glue to fix them in place, and to prevent sliding when it was time to sew the petals down.

The petals were sewn down the middle of each, so the sides could puff out from the center. Extra dimension and depth are my friends. To finish the flowers, I added buttons (saved from a dress I made and wore in college. And no, I'm not really a pack rat! I just sound like one when blogging.) to the center of each. Then I added machine embroidery to create the stems of the flowers.

I think it turned out quite well, and now it's Miss Elle's favorite shirt. Go figure. (Don't even THINK about doing this to your other shirts, Missy! I may not be this creative next time.)