A few years ago I worked as a kids wear designer for Cakewalk; the ultimate girly collection with lots of  bright colors, detailed garments and multi layered fabric prints and artworks. Especially the t-shirt artworks were very elaborate with layers of embroidery, print, buttons, bows, beads, sequins and appliqué in felt and fabric. For me, designing these multi layered fabric prints and artworks were the cherry on the pie. The more colorful, layered and used materials (within the budget of course) the better. Off course these artworks were mass produced in countries such as Turkey and India, so I never really realized how much time and hard work it took to actually make them. So I decided to challenge myself by making a neckline appliqué artwork by hand and share it with the world!

For this project I decided to use only 100% wool felt. Of course you can go crazy with all sorts of materials, but do not underestimated the difficulty of cutting some little felt flowers and hearts. It’s harder then it looks!

I’ve used:

• a t-shirt
• 100 % wool felt in a few pretty colors
• small patterns of the shapes you want to cut out
• a sharp scissor
• pins
• a sewing machine or needle and thread

If you don’t feel particularly creative in making your own little felt pattern, you can also download the pdf with the flowers, leaves and hearts I’ve used. You can find the download button at the top of this post. In there you’ll find the different shapes I’ve used, but also the total artwork. You can either print out the file with the flowers in different sizes, cut them out and create an artwork of your own, or you can use the artwork as is. To determine the right size of the artwork for the t-shirt you’re using, make a test print and pin it to the shirt. If it’s too big or to small, you can easily resize the artwork in your Acrobat print window.

When your done resizing or creating your artwork, you can start cutting out the different leaves, flowers and hearts. Pin them to the shirt and fasten them by hand or by sewing machine. A little note of caution: If your making this artwork for a small child or baby, then please make sure that all the parts are securely fastened! Do not underestimate the strength of your little ones! Especially when you’re using beads and sequins you have to be extra careful! So give all the parts a good twist and pull, just to be sure!

Happy sewing!