Sewing: Sailboat Applique T-Shirt (Template)

We have been having an "electronic-free" Summer so far. Well, I guess it's obvious that some of us are still plugged in. I should say the girls are "free" this summer. Free of TV and computer and iPod and phones except for family and friend movie times. And it's going amazingly well! The first few days were hard, especially for the littlest...

But after that it's gone as I hoped. They fill their time with being kids. Just as it should be. 

They are amazing at entertaining themselves, inventing games and running around outside. Especially with some structured activities mixed in. We're doing a lot of swimming, some dance and a few half-day camps. Fridays are field trip days.

I didn't do much summer camping as a child. I would have done more and I still love the idea of it. Friends of ours take their whole family to a "sleep away camp" for a week at the end of the summer and I think it sounds dreamy.

I would say we've found a good balance this summer between fun obligations and free time, but it still seems to be going by so quickly and I haven't tackled much on my list. I guess it's a good thing I didn't even write down the list. I

To make myself feel better about the lack of creative output (which really shouldn't be a high priority anyway, but I do love it...) I decided to whip up something quick and easy to show for myself. So I appliqued some t-shirts for the girls with a simple sailboat design. Check!

A different sailboat for each girl. It was fun, and a bit tricky to come up with the right combinations of prints. (And I was again reminded of what a great job is done by Mini Boden!) I used all knits and was happy to find I had enough scraps.

I used double-stitching this time and I like the look. I was thinking about using some embroidery floss and hand-stitching because I love that big color contrast but who was I kidding? It was a late night as it was. Maybe next applique idea...

If you are looking for a quick project for your girl (or boy!) I've got a template you can download and a few how-tos after the jump.

SAILBOAT APPLIQUE

You'll need:

• My Sailboat applique template
• A t-shirt
• Fabric scraps (knits or wovens will work)
• Coordinating thread
• Fusible webbing (such as Heat N'Bond)

I went about the appliques a bit differently this time. I wanted my fabric pieces to be "raw" on the edges so they will curl and misbehave in interesting ways, but I wanted to use fusible webbing because it's a great stabilizer and I love being able to adhere the pieces in place before stitching. So I used the smaller shapes in the template (each piece has a larger and smaller outline on which to cut) to cut out some fusible webbing and the larger pieces to cut out the fabrics. Then I stacked them t-shirt, webbing, and fabric on top and ironed them in place. It was not as simple as ironing fabric to webbing and then cutting...but it did what I wanted it to.

Once the design was ironed in place I used my sewing machine to create a double row of stitching just inside the edges of the shapes.

That's it! Pretty simple summer project.

If you are new to applique I have other tutorials here and here, which you may find helpful.