I just used an undershirt I had (I had bought a pack for his pirate costume). I'm glad I had white because then we could use any colors we wanted, but it was a little thin. So maybe next time I would buy a plain shirt from the craft store.
He loves writing, so I wanted it to actually have the number 100 on there. I started by printing out the one and the zero in Freshman font from my computer. Then I cut them out and used them as templates for my blue felt.
I fiddled with these a lot, getting them placed just right and pinned down where I wanted them...
Then I opened the shirt from the bottom and slid the shirt under my machine's presser foot and needle. It was much easier working with the opening on the bottom because it's bigger. Even so, the last zero ended up a little crooked. I was having some trouble with the inside stitching on the middle zero (just me getting used to my new machine), and I think when I was trying to fix my machine, I pulled on the shirt too much and moved it. Oh well, my son still loved it...
I had several ideas for how to put 100 things on this shirt. I wanted to do baseballs, but the idea I came up with for that would have involved drawing the red stitching on 100 buttons and sewing them on. Yech... Even hot gluing them seemed like too much work, and then I'd worry about washing it.
When wandering the aisles at the craft store, I found some ink that said it was permanent and worked well on fabric. It also happened to be right next to the foam stamps (NOT in the scrapbooking department). They had some sports stamps. That screamed easy and boyish to me...
So last Saturday, I put down a bit of vinyl to protect my table and we grabbed the ink and the stamps. In reality, my son didn't get to help as much as I had hoped. I handed him a stamp and showed him how to ink it, but he got the (permanent) ink all over his hands. So I ended up inking it and he told me where to put it, then we pushed on it together. So just watch out with this project! He did enjoy making it though. He got 25 footballs, 25 soccer balls, 25 baseballs and 25 stars.
**Okay, sad note: Somehow this got in with the wash (I am glad my little man is learning to put his dirty clothes in the hamper), but so much for their permanent, fabric ink. Washed right off! So now it just says 100. So just know if you use stamps, don't wash it!
Even sister was pretty impressed with his shirt...
My son is 4, and as I said, we had a bit of a mess with the ink. But if your child is a little older/more inclined toward arts and crafts, this would be the perfect indoor project. And he loves this shirt because he helped make it.
He wore it to school and proudly showed it off to his friends. As part of the celebration, they also made necklaces with 100 beads, got a 100 celebration rub-on tattoo and made hats. He loved it!
So maybe if you have a special occassion or trip coming up, this is a fun, little idea to help them get excited about it. It would also be a fun Valentine's craft -- make a felt heart and sew it on then let your little one add their own embellishments. You could also do this with an apron, a super hero cape, etc. Actually, I'll share a similar project (hopefully next week) of something I'm making for the little sister for Valentine's Day. :)
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