kids art to kids t-shirt

Well, Babyebi loves his Mushroom Boy Ika t-shirt so much I though we would make another one. I have had a few emails asking me how to do it so here is a tutorial. I apologise now for the photos and I wish I could have taken more but my camera has well and truely died so I am stuck with my phone camera.

You will need...

• a small child
• paper, crayons, pencils etc.
• T-shirt to fit small child
• material scraps
• bondaweb or similar
  
• scissors, thread, etc
• fabric paint (optional)

OK, first give the small child the drawing materials and wait patiently for a materpiece to be drawn - this may take from 5 minutes to several weeks. Alternatively look through small child's previous artwork to find a suitable drawing.

Now enlarge (or reduce) the drawing so that it fits on a piece of A4 portrait paper. 

*my son had drawn his picture on a magnetic drawing board so I took a photograph, uploaded to the computer and changed the size using Photoshop, but if the picture is on paper you could simply use a photocopier.

Next, cut out the pieces of drawing, each piece should be for separate pieces of fabric. These are your pattern pieces.

Get the small child to pick out scraps of fabric for each piece of pattern. Mark out the piece and cut out. Press all the pieces.

Use the bondaweb or similar - follow the instructions on how to use it. I cut out pieces of bondaweb to match my pattern piece and placed between the T-shirt and fabric pattern pieces. Put all the fabric pieces in place then press.

Now stitch around the pieces, you could do by hand or on the machine. If you have a proper applique stitch use that, I have a very basic machine so zig-zag it is.

Cut off all loose ends and press.

If the design has any small details you can hand stitch them or use fabric paint.

Put the T-shirt on the small child and let them pose around in it....