Painted T-Shirts

We've been really lucky with the weather here. It has been cold on occasion, but we've seen the sun most days. The past few days, however, it's been raining and cold.... the weather that we were afraid we'd have more often than not. So, this week, we didn't do much. We went to the gym, swam inside, and got rained on quite a bit. I figured, I'd take this opportunity to share the girls and my latest obsession.

The girls are used to asking me to make very specific dresses. Without a sewing machine here, they've branched out on what they're demanding. First, it was an R2-D2 doll from Star Wars. Since I needed a creative outlet, I found a fabric store nearby and the girls helped me pick out some felt material, thread, needles, fabric paints, and assorted buttons. This worked out better than I expected and each girl got a rather cute little R2-D2 toy. I've got a picture here. Poor R2-D2 looks a little mangy, but that's because he's been so well-loved!


After that turned out as well as it did, Katie wanted an Ahsoka doll. She's an orange girl from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I made an acceptable doll complete with white and gray yarn for the hair. But, felt really isn't the best material to use to make a stuffed animal, and the girls fought over her some. So, now her hair's all a mess and she has a few holes in her.

I didn't want to keep making stuffed animals. And, Katie has a pair of shorts with just Sponge Bob's face on them. It seemed like it would be simple enough to paint his face on a yellow shirt. We found 3 yellow shirts and I started painting. These turned out better than I expected and the girls enjoyed wearing their shorts and shirts around town. Katie also wanted an Ahsoka shirt. I couldn't find an orange shirt, but I did find an orange dress. So, I painted her face on dresses for the girls. (You may have seen these dresses in some of our pictures!)

These shirts turned out so well that the girls started requesting more and more shirts with various characters on them. Tom & Jerry were next. We hadn't been able to find one of their shirts in the States, so I figured this would have to be the next best thing. And, I'm really happy with how these shirts turned out!

There were a few problems making the shirts. I didn't read the directions on the paint and didn't iron the shirts after they dried. This meant that when I washed them, some of the paint came off. So, I had to repaint them! Once I read the directions and ironed the shirts, I haven't had any problems with the paint coming off. Since I figured out the problem with the paint coming off, the girls have had fun requesting new designs for shirts! I've painted Mr. Krabs with his bag of money, gray Hello Kitty, and the pretty Green M&M. The problem... Now Katie's making harder requests. She's recently gotten into Harry Potter and she wants a shirt with him on it! I wonder how that will turn out.