Crafting for Baby - Easy DIY Applique for Baby Clothes from Mommy Like Whoa

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Someday Crafters!! Berta from Mommy Like Whoa is here showing us how to make a personalized shirt for St. Patrick's Day. She even does it without a craft cutting machine (Cricut, Silhouette, etc)

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Hello Lovelies! I'm Berta and I blog over at Mommy Like Whoa! It's nice to meet you today! and pssst... Happy Saint Patrick's Day too! When my daughter Abbey was a baby, I loved making her awesome baby stuff. I would make things for hours, and then I would make more for my friends and family having kids as well. I went a little crazy with it. One of my favorite things to do, was applique. I still do it now, on bags, and shirts and pretty much anything I want to add a special touch to. It's super easy, super cheap and 100% customizable, which makes it AWESOME! Ever see an adorable shirt, and say "Oh man, I wish I had that shirt!", well now you can make it! And I'm going to show you how! All you need is; Pattern for your shirt (words, a picture, icon etc...) Fabric of your choice Wonder Under, Heat 'n' Bond or similar fusible webbing iron on backing Scissors Shirt/Onesie/Bag/Whatever Iron

That's it! And if you're a crafter like me, you probably have most of that laying around the house, but if you don't you can find ALL of it at Joann's or another Fabric store. Take your fabric and iron it nice and flat. Use the appropriate heat setting for whatever fabric you're using. Following the package directions for your fusible webbing, iron it onto the wrong side of your fabric. (That's the side WITHOUT the design) Let it cool.

Now on the other side of the backing is paper. It's very easy to write on it, draw on it, trace a pattern onto it etc. Since it's Saint Patrick's Day, I thought I would do something festive!

When tracing letters, or numbers or anything that has a "right way" and a "wrong way" make sure you flip the image, because since you're writing on the BACK of the fabric, it needs to be mirrored. I wrote "PINCH PROOF" and drew a little Shamrock in block letters, backwards, because I like that "homemade look", but if you have a paper cutting machine, you could use that and trace the letters out, or use a stencil. Once the fabric has cooled, trace your pattern onto the paper part of the fusible. Cut out with scissors.

Arrange your images onto the shirt, so you can plan where you want everything to go. Make sure you put a bit of parchment paper or something similar between the layers of fabric on the shirt, so you aren't fusing the shirt together by accident too!

Piece by piece, remove the paper backing and place your applique onto the shirt, ironing it into place by following the heat recommendations on the package, each brand is different so please make sure you check your specific directions first.

Once you've arranged and ironed down each piece, you can stop here, but if you're handy with a sewing machine, or with embroidery, you can always add some top stitching around the letters for extra "hold".

I recommend this especially if you're making something you might be washing a lot. If you're appliqueing a bag, you might be able to skip this step, but with clothes it really makes your effort worth it. And you're done! How cute is this little shirt! Now you know how to make your own iron-ons! Go on and applique your little hearts out!

Thanks for reading!

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What a cute idea! It's still early enough in the day that you could whip this up for later today, or save it for next year!

If you've missed any of the previous days in our Crafting for Baby series, you can easily catch up. You can also check out the Crafting for Baby Link Party!