Simple Appliqued Sweatshirt

 Hello Readers. Today is election day. I hope you can get out and vote if you are in the U.S. I wanted to make a shirt for the day that went with the voting theme. (I really love a shirt with a theme.) I wanted spell out the word vote but this idea would work for any word. (Thankful for Thanksgiving, Love for Valentine's Day, Luck for St. Patrick's Day...) I don't have a fancy embroidery sewing machine so let me show you how I did this.

Vote!

 

This sweatshirt was plain and simple and it would be a perfect base for adding some letters. 

 

I had a small piece of cotton fabric with the names of the states. It would be perfect for my letters. And the fabric looked pretty good with my sweatshirt. 

 

The thing that made this project so simple was fusible interfacing. Follow the instructions on the packaging to iron this onto the fabric you want to make your letters out of. 

I used my iron to fuse the interfacing to my fabric. I put my fabric face down and put the bumpy side facing the fabric. I used some scrap white cotton as a barrier between that and my iron. I made my 4 small rectangles because I knew I was going to make 4 letters.

 

The interfacing made the fabric a little thicker and stiffer. It would be easier to handle, cut and sew like this. 

I used a ruler to help me sketch out my letters. I made boxy letters with straight lines. They were easy to draw and they will be easier to sew to my sweatshirt. I used pencil because it will wash out easily.

I cut out all my letters following the pencil lines I drew. 

I arranged my letters on my sweatshirt and made sure I liked the arrangement. These are off center for 2 reasons.

 1. It looked more fun to me. 

2. If I try to line the letters up perfectly straight and they shift even a little in the sewing process, it will be very obvious. Doing it this way will make it easier later. 

I pinned the letters to the sweatshirt. I put pins in all around the letters and made sure they were in different directions to keep the letters in place the best I could while I was sewing.

I used a wide zigzag stitch to attach the letters to the shirt. I sewed all around the edges of the letters. This will keep the edges from fraying and keep the shirt in good condition wash after wash. 

I used different color thread for each letter just for fun. The colors you use are up to you. 

When I was done it was a little wrinkled and the letters had shifted a bit in a couple spots but it's OK. I am not trying to launch a rover to Mars, it doesn't have to be perfect. We are here for a good time, don't stress. I loved how my shirt turned out.

 

 I ironed the whole shirt to smooth out the letters.

My shirt was finished. 

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. And vote if you can.