How to Make a Petal Tee with a Die Cut Machine


I 'll never be a scrapbooker. I don't have time to print pictures let alone cut out little cute thematic pieces of paper to go with them. But those scrappy people, they are on to something with those die cut machines! I cut the flowers for this petal tee with my new Sizzix Big Shot. Like it?


(Gosh, thanks! Me too.)  Here's how I did it.
  • 2 matching tees from Target clearance.  Yup, 2 bucks each
  • Big Shot machine and Big Shot Originals die Flower Layers #2
  • hand needle and thread
I cut one tee into die-sized rectangles and layered 4 at once on the die.

 
I did the first run-through with a piece of regular paper on top to help stabilize, but it turned out I didn't need it so did the rest with fabric only.


Then I made piles by size. For this project, I decided the smallest flower wasn't what I wanted, so I only used the big, medium and smaller flower. Then I layered them, either a big with a medium, medium with a small, or a a big with a small.

 
Threading a hand needle, I used a running stitch around the center of each 2-layer flower and pulled it to gather it up. What's a running stitch? Go up from the back at the base of one petal, down again at the base of the next, up at the base of the next, and down at the fourth. You've really just made 2 stitches in the flower, then pull it to gather.


Then I attached the flower to the neckline of the other shirt (you know, the one I didn't cut up into bits) with a backstitch. You don't want to use a running stitch all the way through or if your thread gets caught on something, the whole thing will bunch up. What's a backstitch? If you are adding the flowers right to left, as I am, put your needle down through the shirt fabric, then bring it up to the right of where you put it down. Catch some flower fabric, and put it back down to the left of your starting point. This picture shows the backstitch from the inside of the shirt, so it shows up (to the inside of the shirt), down to the right, then (catching some flower fabric) up to the left of the starting point.


Your needle's on the inside of the shirt now. Bring it up a little space away (about an inch and a half depending on what size flowers you're using).

Repeat until your flowers are all along the neckline. 

 

I used about 16 flowers, starting with 2 smaller flowers near the shoulder and then randomized, then ended with 2 small flowers. Then I put my thread in my pocket, but that's an in joke, ha ha.

The back will look kind of messy, but who cares? Here's the back of a Banana Republic embellished tee I shelled out $40 for, and it's messy too.


Enjoy!


Please link to me if you like this tutorial, or better yet, come to my etsy shop and buy scads of my PDF sewing patterns so I can buy more dies for my Big Shot, and I promise I'll post about more crafty things to do with it.

Comments

Holly Istas said…
very clever & super-cute!
Gina said…
beautiful!!
Unknown said…
wow!!! i love it!!!

lighttrigger.blogspot.com
Julia Litz said…
This project is great, thanks for posting it and participating in the FaveCrafts blog hop! Our next blog hop will be January 15 and we hope you’ll participate again. Your project will also be featured in a special newsletter that goes out to 850,000+ readers. Thanks again!

Julia
Editor
FaveCrafts.com
Anonymous said…
Thank you for sharing this. Seems simple enough even for me, but super cute.
Anonymous said…
Love it! You did a great job. Can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Anonymous said…
This is so cute! I can`t wait to do it !