24 Projects in 12 Months - #4 DIY Quick Birthday Number Tee

In January of 2013 I challenged myself to make two projects per month for twelve months and share my results here at Nihao, Cupcake! Blog. Today I share with you Project #4 Quick Birthday Number Tee. To see my other 24 Projects in 12 go here.

Here is the t-shirt I made with scraps from this project for my son's 8th birthday. It was a quick & easy way I could make my son feel special on his birthday by presenting him with a custom made shirt in his favorite colors that he was excited to wear to school on his birthday announcing his new age.

I printed out a pattern/template for my "8" using Arial text in Photoshop. I opened a new 8.5x11 document. Using the TEXT tool, I created a large text box and filled it with a letter. The font size you use will depend upon the font that you select. I believe this was around 170 point. Just experiment until you get the size that you want. 

If you want a thicker letter, BOLD your letter. Then print. I printed using the greyscale draft function to save on ink.

Then I cut out my pattern and pinned it on my felt scrap. Cut it out.

I wanted a little contrast on my number, so I pinned the red felt to some yellow and cut around that by hand. You can see it isn't perfect.

I pinned the bi-color "8" to the t-shirt. It was purchased at Joanns on sale. Lucky me!

After pinning my number on the shirt, I removed the paper pattern.

I machine stitched around the outside of the red eight, about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the edge of the red felt. I just eyeball it as I am sewing.

After stitching around the outside, I stitched around the inner circles.

If you didn't want to sew your numbers, you could use fabric glue instead.

And the t-shirt is finished! It is that simple.

Here is the shirt the morning of my son's birthday awaiting his arrival along with his decorated birthday chair. He loved wearing it to school.

Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[Nina]

Hi Margie, Your son looks so proud in the Photo - that's the best reward one can get :-) ... You're so creative!

[brooke]

love it! it turned out great! i am still scared of my sewing machine, but (thankfully) have a mother-in-law that helps me out with all of my sewing projects. :)

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks, Brooke! This would be a great beginner's project. Especially, if the number you are sewing has straight lines. You are lucky you have someone willing to teach you. But if worse comes to worse, try fabric glue! Let me know if you ever make one, I'd love to see it.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Yes, you are so right. He does love the shirt. I'm never quite sure especially the older they get, so I was quite happy when he wore it to school and am still glad that he wears it often.