A Ladybug Tee for Junebug Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day crafty friends!  Are you doing something special to celebrate the holiday?  For sweet little Junebug, I made a Gap knock-off t-shirt that I feel compelled to share with you.

The idea came from a sweet shirt I ran across at Gap a few weeks ago.  Junebug and I both liked it, but being the cheapskate crafty gal that I am, I thought I could recreate it for a fraction of the price--so I made it happen!

Here's the shirt we saw at Gap:

I had all of the supplies on hand from previous projects except for the t-shirt, which cost $3.

Here's what you'll need if you want to create this beauty:

• White t-shirt in your kiddo's size, washed, dried, and ironed
• Black, red and white t-shirt fabric paint (it's definitely better than regular fabric paint, I promise)
• Sponge brush
• Black puff fabric paint
• Red embroidery floss, needle, embroidery hoop (if ya wanna get all fancy)
• Water-soluble pen

 Let me start by saying that perfection is not the key to this shirt.  The original is funky-looking and I wanted to keep it that way, so don't go getting all freaked out about perfection--just let it go!

I started with a dollop of white paint and a dollop of red paint (both are T-shirt fabric paints) and then used my mad art skills (NOT!) to create a pink streak in the center.  I wanted there to be some streakiness in the colors, so I only moved my sponge brush through the paint in one direction.

Make a ladybug-like shape and then let it dry.  (Be sure to put a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through.  I normally use an old file folder for this.) 

See how imperfect it is?  No biggie--it's supposed to be that way!  Once the red/white/pink streaks are dry, fill in the rest of the ladybug's body with the black t-shirt paint.  Then use the black puff paint to make the antennae and the heart-shaped ladybug spots.  So cuh-yoot!

If you're happy with it as is, then you can be done at this point.  Personally, I liked how the word "love" was embroidered on the original Gap shirt, so I added it.  I simply wrote the word "love" on the t-shirt with a water-soluble pen and then embroidered over it with red floss using a backstitch. 

It's not a must, but I also fused a small piece of interfacing over the backside of the stitching so the back of the stitches would not be exposed on the inside of the shirt. Junebug is a picky gal, and I'm sure she'd be bothered by the exposed stitches against her skin.  Man, she is one tough cookie!

So, here's the original next to my knock-off:

I'd say the savings and the crafty satisfaction were worth a little bit of effort!  Whaddya think?