Mickey Mouse Thanksgiving and Birthday shirts - Silhouette Cameo and Embroidered

My dear friend, Amy, asked me to make shirts for her adorable son.  He's celebrating two milestones this month: his first Thanksgiving and his first birthday.  We flipped through a few pages on Etsy so she could give me an idea of what she was looking for.  She's a big Mickey Mouse fan, so it was fitting that these are Mickey Mouse inspired shirts.

First Birthday Shirt

First Thanksgiving Shirt

I came across this cute Thanksgiving fabric at JoAnns.  I thought it'd be perfect for the necktie applique.

I first layed out the designs using the Silhouette designer.  Then I cut out the fabric to fit the applique designs.

Iron Heat n Bond to the backs of the fabric.

 
After it has cooled down, remove the Heat n Bond's paper backing.

 

Cut out each design separately.  I started with the necktie.

 

Adhere the fabric to the cutting mat.  Then load it into the machine.

 If you have a sharp blade, it'll cut like butta'.  Remove the excess fabric and ta-da! You have yourself a lovely necktie!

I went through the same process with mickey mouse head and the pilgrim hat.

Layout the design on the shirt, then use a medium iron to iron everything into place.

Now, put the Silhouette away, and pull out the sewing machine!  I used my sewing machine, instead of my embroidery machine, to sew around the appliques.

Here is what it looks like after I've stitched down the necktie, Mickey, and the hat.

Now, I used the embroidery machine to embroider 'My First Thanksgiving' onto the necktie.  Since, I'm still new to embroidery, I hold my breathe the whole time it's embroidering.  It's so nerve racking because I'm afraid something awful is going to happen!  But, nothing bad happened.  Yay!

Then I sewed '2013' on Mickey's ear.  Here's the finished product!

To make the birthday shirt, I used the Silhouette to cut out all of the applique pieces.

I laid out my design.  Then ironed everything into place

I used an applique stitch around the number one and the party hat.  I used a straight stitch around Mickey's head.

 I sewed a pom-pom to the top of the hat.  And found some ribbon for the bottom of the hat.  Last but not least, I embroidered his name at the bottom.

 Somebody is going to look awfully handsome on Thanksgiving and his birthday. ;)

Christmas Shirts For Her Classmates

Yes, I know, I know....Halloween was just yesterday and here I am writing a Christmas post.  Ugh, the nerve of me.  But before you get your undergarments in a bunch, hear me out.  This project is for my daughter's class' Holiday show.  'Trick love da kids' and so do I!

The class will be wearing red and green t-shirts.  The back of the shirt will have "Santa's List" of all her classmates.  The front of the shirt will say either 'Nice' or 'Naughty'.  How fun and exciting!  Let's get started..

Step 1.  I used my Silhouette to create the stencil for the back of the shirt.  I used their software to create the design.

Feeding the contact paper

Step 2. I used Contact paper as the stencil.  (I used to buy the 'official' Silhouette stencil paper, but Contact paper works just as great and it's cheaper!)  I cut the contact paper to fit my design (12" x 10").  Feed that bad boy through the machine.

Weeding out the letters

Step 3.  After it's done cutting out all of the words, 'weed' out the letters.  The weeded out parts are the parts that will be painted.  You essentially want a negative of your final design.

Step 4.   Cut a sheet of transfer tape to the size of your design.  Then lay the transfer tape over your design.

Step 5.  Remove the paper from the back of your design and lay it flat on the back of the shirt.

Step 6.  Peel away the top layer of transfer tape.

Removing the transfer tape

Ready to start painting!

Step 6.  This is the kid-friendly part of the project - PAINTING!  When I let the kids paint, I usually add a blue painter's tape border around the edge of the design.  That way they know not to paint outside of the border.

I used Tulip Soft Matte fabric paint in White.

Place a piece of cardboard or a manila folder inside the shirt.  This will catch any bleeding from the paint.

Apply two coats of paint.  Make sure to let it dry between coats.  (I used a blow dryer to help speed up the process.)

Paint coat #1

Paint coat #2

Step 7. After the paint is completely dry, remove the contact paper.  Make sure to remove all the little contact paper that's stuck in the letters with holes in them (A, E, O, B).

Set the paint by running a hot iron over it.  The back of the shirt is now done!

Step 8.   Now it's time to work on the front of the shirt.  I used the Silhouette to cut the fabric, too.  I used the software to create the two words 'naughty' and 'nice'.

Iron Heat n Bond to the back of the fabric

Remove the paper backing after the Heat n Bond has cooled

Place the fabric on the cutting mat and feed with in the machine

After it's done cutting, remove all the lovely letters

Step 9.  Take it to the ironing board.  I folded my shirt in half and ironed a crease down the middle of the shirt.  This is to help my center the wording onto the shirt.  I placed the word about 3-4 inches down from the collar.

Iron the letters into place.

Step 10.  I thought a zigzag stitch in a contrasting color would be cute.  So, I navigated my way around each letter.  (I know my embroidery machine could do it more efficiently, but..I haven't mastered that project yet.)

Here's the final product.

Front

Back

Staining Project - Part II - Closet Doors

So, the restained stairs look awesome.  But what should I do with the leftover stain and the non-matching linen closet?  Hmmmm....(light bulb goes off.)

I won't bore you with step-by-step instructions, since I followed the same staining steps as in my previous post.  I'll just post a few pictures and call it a day.

Before (boo)

After (yay!)

Removed the doors

Sanded with an 80 grit and 150 grit

2 coats of stain; 2 coats of polyurethane

 It looks mahhhh-velous!

Stairway to Awesomeness - Stair Makeover

It was time to give the stairs a facelift!  The oak finish was old, boring, and blah. 

I went with Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Kona.  It's a very dark brown.

First step was to sand, sand, then sand some more.  I used coarse sandpaper to remove the existing finish.  There was a lot of sand to vacuum up!

Then I applied two coats of stain because I wanted it super dark.

Goodbye, Oak.  Hello, Kona!

This is with two coats on stain.

This is with one coat of stain.

This is before the polyurethane.  It's way to shiny for me.

After applying two coats of stain, I lightly sanded with steel wool.  Then applied 3 coats of Rustoleum Ultimate Polyurethane in Satin.  I lightly sanded with steel wool in between coats to keep everything nice and smooth.  The satin finish gave it a nice muted finish.

After applying three coats of polyurethane.

Aerial view from the second floor.

Next step is to repaint the walls and then repaint the trim!