Turkey T-shirt: After School Express

Whenever I see solid t-shirts on clearance I also grab a few for crafting for the holidays.  It’s something my daughter and I enjoy doing together and creates a keepsake from each holiday. Our Snapshot of Parenting with Purpose this week reminded all of us the importance of capturing moments with our kids during the busy times. 

The picture above and below of turkeys from years past, still remember how much fun they were to make together, so hopefully they’ll inspire you too. 

On The Educators’ Spin On It through images we’ve shared our turkey t-shirts, bunny t-shirts and Alligator t-shirts, spider t-shirts, Holi t-shirts, and even Owl t-shirts over the past year. 

To be honest my co-author +Amanda Boyarshinov is my inspiration for making holiday themed shirts and skirts, she’s far more talented when it comes to sewing, a peek at her recent Owl Quilt will confirm her creativity and skills. So I’m here to tell you this is so simple ANYONE can do it and at the LAST MINUTE!     

Grab fabric and Iron-On Fusible Interfacing to go on the back.  Iron on the interfacing onto a small square big enough to bit a handprint or however many hands you’re tracing.  Plus leave some space for initials if you want to include them.  I learned the hard way once and cut out my shapes first and then tried to iron on the webbing, not a pretty picture.  Once you’re ironed on the webbed you can trace and cut out the handprint.  Then cut it out and peel the white paper off the back, again another important step that I’ll confess I’ve forgotten once or twice with tiny parts. Once the paper backing is removed you can iron the fabric onto your T-shirt. 

I allow my daughter to help me with selecting the fabric, tracing the hand, the buttons, cutting the fabric and the placement on the shirt.  That way she feels like this is her project too and it’s great fun to do it together.  I don’t allow her near the iron, that’s a grownup job for now at our house.  Now here’s where you can decide what to do.  If you know you’re going to wear and wash the shirt again and again you can then sew around the handprint with your sewing machine or by hand.  If you think you’re going to wear it a few times and be done with it you can chose a light stitching or none at all and then remove it when you’re done.  I think our turkeys are actually going to become snowmen with the same fabric for the winter season.  We shall see! I’ll keep you posted.  It’s just fun to have something special to wear for the holidays. The orange handprint are becoming a table runner for Thanksgiving day too!