YEAR: ___

My friend Kelly made a birthday shirt for her son's first birthday. It was so cool I thought it was a project I would like to try to tackle.

materials: a plain t-shirt, wonder under (or heat n' seal), material, thread, iron, sewing machine

• step one: prewash material and t-shirt
• step 2: apply wonder under to the back side of your material
• step 3: cut out your pattern/design
• step 4: iron your design onto the t-shirt (be sure to take the paper backing off the material first)
• step 5: stitch the perimeter of the design
• step 6: ready to wear

YEAR: one. A shirt for my nephew.

YEAR: one. A shirt for my son. To go along with his monster birthday theme.

I went through my husband's closet and snipped off the extra buttons on a few of his dress shirts to use as the monster eyes.

My birthday boy sporting his YEAR: one shirt. My little monster in his monster YEAR: one shirt in front of his monster cake! You're never too old for a birthday shirt. YEAR: forty. A shirt for my brother.

Monster Flags

Monster Flags

I decided the night before Emilio's birthday party to go ahead and make monster flags. I had all the material to make them, just not a whole lot of time. Since time was an issue I kept it simple. Only using white, black and red colored features in order to cut down on my sewing and thread changing. Also I didn't put too much detail, eyes and mouths only. I'm kind of glad I didn't have a lot of time. There's a lot to be said for simplicity! And some how the size and amount of flags I made fit perfectly onto the binding (3 yards). I got lucky without doing any measuring this time! The flags and features are both made from eco-friendly felt (felt made from recycled plastics) and sewn onto a 3 yard strip of double wide binding.

We hung the monster flags above the taco buffet. I'm really glad I ended up making the flags. When Rojelio went to get balloons for the party the store was closed. Not closed for the day, but completely closed, as in no longer in operation. We didn't have time to trek around the city to get balloons, so the flags were our only (non-edible) decoration. So hooray for monster flags!

my MITTS

my MITTS: child sized hand puppets. made from no-pill fleece and eco-friendly felt (felt made from recycled plastics)

I made 18 monster my Mitts for my son's monster themed first birthday. I rolled them up & tied them with a ribbon so they fit nicely into the pull string pinata. Each child got to take 2 home because you can't just have one monster my MITT!

Group shots. (fronts then backs)

closer shots so you can see the whole my MITT (fronts then backs)

The monster my MITTS were a lot of fun to make & they seemed to take on little personalities! Now they are all off to good homes.

rub-a-dub & scrub-a-dub

Introducing my rub-a-dubs & scrub-a-dubs.

(toddler/kid sized hooded towels and matching washcloths)

rub-a-dubs: one bath sized towel, half of a hand towel & fabric to cover the back side of the hood if so desired. I liked personalizing the towel by added the fabric to the hood. First I cut the hand towel in half, then sewed the patterned material to the back of the half-of-hand-towel. Next I centered the half-of-hand-towel on a long edge of the bath towel. Sewed together. Last I folded the half-of-hand towel, right sides in, and sewed the unfinished edge to form the hood.

My super star modeling my first rub-a-dub. scrub-a-dub: baby washcloth, flannel cut to size of washcloth, ribbon, cutout from matching material. First I used wonder under (a heat n' seal) on the back of the patterned material. Cut out my desired cutout. Ironed the cutout onto the flannel fabric. Stitched around the edges of the cutout. With right sides facing each other (I put a cloth ribbon in the corner in this step) , sew the washcloth and flannel together, leaving a few inches to turn right side out. After I turned it right side out I stitched up the opening. And then just put a finishing stitch around the cloth to form an edge.

Baby shower gift.

Fish rub-a-dub for my nephew.

Matching scrub-a-dub. Made from a regular washcloth, not a baby one. A practical birthday gift for a 3-year girl. So yeah, I turned Lucia into the "who invited that kid!?" kid at the party!