Friday 1 November 2013

... and Embroidered T-Shirt Art

Halloween is over... but Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is still going on so what better time to share this project to make a unique piece of artwork. Of course can be used for any idea / theme but I have been holding onto it for now for obvious reasons ;)

I was sorting through our clothes for charity shop or upcycling potential and I came across an old T-Shirt of Mally's. It had faded a lot, but I loved the design on it and wanted to preserve it in some way. I know for a fact that I am not ready to tackle the T-Shirt quilts that are all over Pinterest. I also wanted to practise my embroidery and an idea came to mind - make a little piece of art!

I forgot to take a picture of the T-Shirt before I cut it up, but I found this photo from our holiday to Cape Town in April 2012 (see Table Mountain in the background?!)
I cut the main part of the picture out (of course remembering to keep the scraps for other projects!!) As the design on the T-Shirt was so detailed, I simply chose which parts I wanted to embroider over, and selected matching threads. As the T-Shirt material is so stretchy, a hoop was essential.
Then using a variety of stitches (none of which I know the real names for and most of which I sort of made up!) I stitched away. 

I could have gone over every bit of the design but wanted to do it partially and I really like how it turned out.
I finished off by ironing, stretching and stapling it to some mount board. I haven't decided whether to frame it but it is definitely going up in the house somewhere!
Do you have any old T-Shirts that you could turn into art?

26 comments:

  1. Brilliant as always and I love the pic of Mallycat. He looks so young.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thisis an amazing idea. Our t shirts are so dull though!!!

    http://asaucystitch.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It helps to use kids T-Shirts for sure! xx

      Delete
  3. I will have to start buying more exciting t-shirts! Love this, great idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha Joanna, see above - it helps with the kids T-Shirts! xx

      Delete
  4. That looks really impressive - I can imagine you could really turn any design into art and it would look fab. I shall look at my T-shirts in a completely different light.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes, I've been saving every faded and outsized T-Shirt now! xx

      Delete
  5. What a brilliant idea, I really love the way it turned out too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your revamped tshirt looks wonderful. What a great idea to embroider over the design!
    Ali x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ali - Its a good way to practise your stitching!! xx

      Delete
  7. What a great idea! I've seen people make quilts out of old t-shirts, but this is quite a bit more manageable! Off to dig through the closets for t-shirts and embroidery thread! :)

    Visiting from Wow Us Wednesday!

    Love, Joy @ Yesterfood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joy - I am definitely not up to making a quilt...yet! xx

      Delete
  8. Nice! What a great way to preserve a memory. Thanks for linking up to the Upcycled Linky Party at http://love2upcycle.blogspot.com/2013/11/upcycled-linky-party-29.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is a pretty cool idea. I've never seen anything like it. I look forward to reading more posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Darlene! We hope you will come back for more! xx

      Delete
  10. This is gorgeous, I have so many tshirts I could do this with, I think I'll give it a go!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Awesome idea!!! thanks for sharing, I have a few t-shirts that I can start working on :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is awesome! I have a few T-shirts that belonged to my late sister-in-law that I would love to do this to. I need to get a frame so I can stretch them and hang them on the wall. Thank you so much for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deborah, this is such a great idea and a fab way to preserve memories xxxx

      Delete
  13. Love this idea! Looks great!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...