Flying the Flag!!

Couldn't resist making some applique union jack tshirts for the 2 children who didn't have one already, yesterday. Last minute, day of wedding but really they were easy and didn't take long!

Bit scary doing something so permanent on a tshirt in case it inadvertently flies upside down (sign of distress, though not treason!). Had a panic once they were finished but no, I got it right. That would severely upset my perfectionist streak though no-one else would have a clue, I should think! (But you'd be less likely to see a photo on here!).

So - here are the 2 I did:

This was the first - I was going to leave the blue triangles to the imagination as the background was blue, but the artistic decision was made by LittleH#1 who wanted the flag to look authentic rather than artistic I think. Fair enough!!!!

Here's the second. I am happier with this one, and it was much quicker. I left the white to the imagination on this one, so it was much quicker as I only had to bond and applique the red and blue pieces. The original idea comes from a tshirt that I bought in a charity shop before we left England 2 1/2 yrs ago, and has been well loved in our family too - first by LittleH#1 and now LittleH#2, who is sporting it in the photo below.

So here they are!! All my lovelies watching the royal wedding in very appropriate attire.

Crafty notes:

• For some reason the method used to trace onto the fusible web and then iron on to the tshirt resulted in a problem with the red strips. Must be that it creates a mirror image, so I should have traced them the other way around. The instructions didn't say to do them the other way, but that's what I discovered. It's only the second time I've done applique - the first time was about 5 years ago. 
• The second tshirt was better sewing because I realised I should have swapped the needle. Had to quickly google to find out which Janome needle it was that I needed for stretchy fabrics, so now I know it's the blue tipped one.
• I have run out of white thread. The whole thing was done from stash, and the red, blue and white all come from old baby tshirts / pjs. The fusible web was already in my sewing box (result!) so now everything is sorted it was easy for me to lay my hands on what I needed. (And I remembered from last time that I had no white left. Doh!). No-one should ever run out of white thread. I need to remedy that today.
• It's given me an idea for a bigger project based on the union jack so that highly classified project will be revealed at a later point. But I will be looking for fabrics and trying to design something today. ;)
• Oh and LittleH#3 (and now as I mention it, LittleH#2) has asked for a space tshirt next. I am going to do a shuttle tshirt (for each of them, I guess!). Hardest part about that will be finding a plain black tshirt to make it on, I should think.
• So - I can't make clothes, but  I  can decorate them. ;)

Oh it feels good to be sewing again. :) The room was brilliant, and really made it easy to just do something on the spur of the moment.