Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m back with those new 4th of July t-shirts I mentioned here.
I love me some flag tees a la Old Navy, Aeropostale and Walmart—they’re cute, cheap and an easy way to get into festive mood. But even at $4 or $5 a pop, I’m still staring down $30-40 to deck all eight of us out in new shirts. And right now I’m hanging onto every penny so that we can spend 15 magical hours in the car to go visit grandparents next month.
No problem.
I happen to have several massive totes full of destroyed-stained-faded-ripped clothing to work with. And with some help of my trusty 1941 Singer Featherweight sewing machine I was able to turn this hot mess …
… into this.
Three cute flag tees and vintage one to boot for absolutely NADA out of pocket.
And you could make any patriotic combo using whatever is in your stash bin—combos like:
1) Shirt + scraps + straight stitch sewing
2) Stained shirt + cheapy $1 Walmart flag that’s been ripped off + craft paint / vinyl stencil
(The ink stain was so dark that I sponged white craft paint on first to cover it and then stitched the flag over top. This was the only shirt where the hair spray trick didn’t work – boo.)
3) Stained shirt + strategic stenciling + great vintage inspiration
(The snake was cut on my Silhouette, the font is JSL Ancient.)
Stains were covered using vinyl (or freezer paper) and stenciled with house paint from our kitchen remodel – ha! The inspiration was this awesome flag from the Revolutionary War.
My son changed up the saying on his shirt to make it “cooler.” Whatever.
4) Plain shirt + scraps + snaps
This shirt came together with scraps sewn on white felt and attached with snaps just like these interchangeable shirts here. Looks great with these clippies, too!
Ah … festive flag tees for the kids without touching my bank account (plus some stash busting, too!) Now all I need is a watermelon and some fireworks and I’m ready for the weekend.
Happy Almost 4th of July!
Linking up to:
9 Comments
you are so dang clever, girl. i tell ya, your creativity amazes me. can't wait to see what you do next. hope you and your family have a fabulous holiday.
huh – I am making shirts for my kids too, but I bought tee shirts to cut up. Why do I feel like the dumb one.
I really do love reading your stuff, but I'm afraid your great ideas are giving me an inferiority complex. (kidding)
kinda
LOVE these Tee's lady! LOVE!
very cute, again!
Nike, smart. I like the idea of taking old stained material and making something out of it. We are not big on celebrating 4th of July here. We just celebrate quietly as a family -grill out and grab the US flag paper plates and listen to some patrotic music. 🙂 But I really appreicate the concept of this and will use it. Have a great 4th! I love our country.
OMGosh! I love these! Really LoVE them! I need to go out right NOW to my garage and check the clothes stash!!!! (only and LDS mom has 20 tubs of clothes stored "for the next one" hehehe) anyway, just a tip….hairspray will take out ballpoint ink. Hubster just got marked by 2yo in Sacrament Sunday and the hairspray took it out! I know that ink spot was pretty big..one of my kids broke a bic pen on one of my dd best church dresses and Aqua-Net came to the recue! Of couse it took most of the can, but it saved the dress!
Your creations are the best!
what a great idea!
Thanks for linking up! I featured your post in my wrap up today http://tidymom.net/2011/im-lovin-it-wrap-up-4th-of-july-ideas/
Have a great holiday!
You are so creative and inspirational… You've made me change how I think about things before I toss them. I've started organizing and saving almost everything and it has helped my pocket and my creativity.. Long story short I "heart" your blog!!
You have a wonderful collection and have great idea!I like your kids t-shirtthanks for sharing it.