Football Jersey-Style Boys' Shirt with Reverse Applique

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So, ever since I made Penelope her little girly-punk dress from this post for the the Dharma Trading Design Challenge that Lil Blue Boo is putting on, my little Noah has been asking daily...more like multiple times daily...when I am going to make him a dress too. Now, I might have just sealed the deal for future years of therapy for telling you all he has been begging for me to make him a dress but I what I think he meant was just for me to make him something too. Clarification and interpretation of a 3 year old, that's what it's all about, right!?!

Well, I had been debating what to make him and then I thought that maybe I could just shorten the Sienna dress pattern and make it more box-y instead of dress flare-y at the bottom and it could be the perfect easy shirt for me to make him. So that is what I did and it worked, the perfect boys' shirt!!

Inspiration hit me during all my Super Bowl prepping last week...a Football Jersey-Style shirt...and when I found the cutest t-shirt with the Lucky Charms logo and little leprechaun on it I thought that it would be even cuter to put a St. Patrick's day spin on it too. It was all coming together, don't you love when stuff like that happens!!

What I did was use the colors from the Lucky Charms t-shirt, yellow and green, and found some cheapy Hanes t-shirts in those colors to construct Noah's shirt. I kept the word 'Lucky' from the old t-shirt and part of the leprechaun's face for the center and added a reverse applique shamrock underneath it, so it could read, Lucky 'Charms' but the charm is a four leaf clover...get it!?! Then, I reverse appliqued another shamrock on the back and freezer paper painted some football jersey-style stripes at the tops of the sleeves.

Want to see how it turned out?

Front view of my boys' shirt version of the Sienna Dress pattern

Back view

Close-up of backside with reverse applique shamrock and football jersey stripes on sleeves.

So, do you likey!?!

Want to see how I did it?

To make the football jersey stripes, I just cut strips of freezer paper and ironed them on waxy side down at the place on the sleeves where I thought they looked most 'football jersey' like!

Then, I used a foam brush and fabric paint to make the stripes. I put about 3 coats of fabric paint on to make the yellow color really stand out on the green. Also, make sure you paint in the same direction as your fabric so you have the best movement from your sleeve pieces. I painted mine left to right ONLY...and let me tell you, it is so very tempting to just paint in all directions, trust me!!

Here is the paper cut-out I used for the shamrock. Really, just a bunch of hearts and a stem.

Trace it on your fabric and cut it out carefully, then place your reverse applique fabric underneath (on the wrong side) and pin on the front (or right side) of your fabric! Straight stitch all the way around very, very slowly!

Voila, the finished reverse applique!!

And here's my little guy in his new shirt...he's so excited that I made him something!

The backside view

And now it's time to play!

See ya later!