(tutorial & giveaway) shamrock chic

Once Valentine's Day passed {with a daughter that was so thrilled to have a cute festive shirt}, my thoughts turned to St. Patrick's Day, like so many of you other crafty mamas.  I thought of a bunch of ways to put a shamrock on a shirt.  I really think that many of the ideas that floated through my head (while driving, in the shower, putting my contacts in...) would have been cute.  Then THE IDEA came.  I can't remember what inspired it.  I just remember calling Autie and telling her about the idea, and she said, lets do it together!  Then she had some ideas to improve it, and our Shamrock Chic girls t-shirt was born.

We were thrilled with the way they turned out.  So was my daughter.  {As I was sewing the green hearts on, I got a little frustrated and had to pick some stitches out...I'm a perfectionist, dang it!... and my cute girl said, "Mommy, even if you mess up, I will still like it!"}

Well, we hope you like it too!  

We have made an extra one for one of our amazing readers to win.  I wish we could have made it to order, but with St. Patrick's Day coming up soon, we just picked out a random size to make, a 2T.  So if you have a special little someone in that size range in your life, this one's for you!

To enter this giveaway, the rules are pretty simple.  You never know, you might be the lucky winner!

1) Become a follower of iCandy handmade (1 entry)
2) Post about this giveaway on your blog, and link back to this post (1 entry)
3) Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway, also linking to this post (1 entry)

Please leave a comment for each entry and make sure we have your email!

If you don't want that size, or aren't the lucky winner, no worries!  We have a tutorial for you below, so you can make one yourself.

This is the perfect project to do with a friend or group of friends.  Have everyone find (or buy) some cute green fabric scraps.  Anything works, because the pieces are so small.  The more {fabrics} the merrier!  We ended up buying a few 1/8 yard pieces, and we had some scraps in our stashes, as well.

Supplies Needed
Plain T-Shirt
Variety of Green Fabrics
2 Small Heart Templates {We used 1 1/4" Hearts, and 2" Hearts}
Pen, Fabric Scissors, Iron
Wonder Under or other Fusible tape
Green Thread {Find a color that blends with your fabrics}
Containers for each size of fabric heart {to keep things organized}

Step 1:
Trace, then cut out your hearts using your templates.  For two shirts, we cut out 4 of each fabric (10 or so different fabrics) and had leftovers.

 Step 2: Cut out a pile of tiny squares of fusible tape.

Step 3: Heat up your iron, with the steam setting on.  Place your t-shirt on the ironing board, and lay out your hearts in the shape of shamrocks.  We liked having 4-leaf-clovers, but 3 would be cute too.  It is up to you. We randomly placed the shamrocks on the shirt, wrapping them around the back.  Place the fusible tape pieces under each heart, in the middle, and steam-iron until they are set.  This holds the design in place until you sew them on.

Optional Step: Put a ball point or stretch needle into your sewing machine.  This helps when sewing on jersey.

Optional Step 2: Mark your sewing lines on your hearts.  You can skip this step if you are good at free-hand sewing. {I'm not}

Step 4: Sew around the inside of each heart.  {Beware, the tension gets tricky when sewing cotton onto jersey, but it doesn't have to be perfect, I promise!}  We used white thread in the bobbin, so the inside of the shirt isn't crazy.

Step 5: Sew Stem Shapes coming out of your shamrock "leaves."  Just freehand it, they can all be different.

Step 6: Cut all your threads, inside and out

Step 7: Wash and dry your shirt to fray.  Once this is done, you do not notice any imperfections in your stitches!

Step 8: Realize how lucky your are to have your special little someone in your life!

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2012 Update: Featured Here