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Ballet Shoe Applique on Shirt

 

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Sometimes I can’t leave things alone. 

 

I know we’ve talked about this before.  And how my husband, Steve, sometimes teases me and tells me I can add frill, color, and spice to whatever I want……except to him.  Or his laptop.  Haha.  (He secretly loves my issues.)

 

I bought this little skirt (for a price I could never make it for….ya-hoo!) and a shirt at Baby Gap right after Christmas during some gonga sale

 

I LOVED the skirt.  And so I bought a little plain shirt to go with it.  Now that the skirt fits……the shirt bored me.  So, I got my fabric scraps out and showed that plain shirt who was boss.  Yeah, me.

 

I added some sweet little ballet shoes to the front……tied together with a big bow.

 

 

 

That fluffy skirt thanked me for giving that shirt more life. They’re a great pair now. 

 

 

 

And this little baby girl?  Yeah, she’s munch-able in whatever she wears……but extra cute in her ballet shirt.

 

 

 

This project would also be perfect for those shirts with a stain on the front.  Or a hole.  You know you have plenty of those.

 

 

 

 

One of the best parts about it?  It took me about 20 minutes to do.

 

 

 

So easy, so quick, and so darn adorable.  Success.

 

 

 

Would you like to make your own ballet shoe applique shirt?

 

First of all, I saw a shirt similar to this……I think at Target.  Or maybe baby gap?  I can’t remember.  But I saw it and loved it.  And it turned out to be a very satisfying project.  Hooray.

 

To get started, decide what shirt you want to add your applique to.  Then find some scrap fabric that you can use to make the shoes…….and some ribbon too.

 

Before cutting out the ballet shoe shapes, iron some fusible adhesive to the back of some of your scrap fabric.  (Need help with fusible adhesive?  Go here.)

 

Leave the paper backing on the adhesive and then draw your ballet shoe shapes on the back.  (If you need to draw your shoe shape on paper first and then use it to trace onto your project, that may be helpful.)  Then cut out a smaller oval shape in another color of fabric, for the inside of the shoe shape.

 

 

Next, place the ballet shoes (and their inner oval) right to the front of the shirt.  Tuck a piece of ribbon right under the very top of each ballet shoe, so that you can hide the raw ends of the ribbon.  Iron the shoes down, securing the ribbon ends in place as well.  (My ribbon was nice and wide, so I folded over the ribbon.)

 

 

Next, I sewed a straight stitch, nice and close the edges of each ballet shoe and inner oval.  (After washing, these edge may fray just a tad, but not much.  If you’d prefer, you can do a nice tight zig-zag stitch that will enclose the edges a bit more.)

Then, I kind of twisted the ribbon and pinned it in place where I wanted to sew it.  I didn’t just want straight lines of ribbon because I wanted it to look like actual messy ballet strings.

 

Then I sewed the folded and twisted ribbon right in place.

 

Then I tied a bow with the same ribbon and then sewed it right down to the shirt, covering the ends of the ribbons that were already sewn to the shirt.

 

To keep your ribbon ends from fraying, you can either use fray check, or heat them with a lighter.  I prefer the lighter method.

 

 

And that’s it. 

 

Nice and quick, right?

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

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This post is sponsored by:

 

Ashley Johnston

Administrator at Make It & Love It
Ashley Johnston is a professional DIY costume maker, sewist, crafter, and owner of Make It & Love It. She is a mom of 5 and a wife to a very patient (with the craft clutter) husband. In case you’re wondering, she always chooses crafting/sewing/designing over mopping/dusting/wiping base boards……but bathrooms/laundry/full bellies are always attended to. Whew!

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Hi, I'm Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!

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