LORD OF THE RINGS-INSPIRED RECYCLED T-SHIRT

  My husband threw away an old, worn out t-shirt of his about three weeks ago. Luckily I noticed this, and saved the rag for later. It sat next to my sewing machine up until two days ago. That´s when the inspiration hit me: the color was just right for an Ent -inspired t-shirt to my seven-year-old son! (The Lord Of The Rings has remained one of my absolute favorite movies through these years, and is visually brilliant.)

  First I had to turn the old shirt into a new one. Here is what was left of it after cutting out the pieces for a kid´s version:

This is what I love about recycling: so much less waste!

  Then I sat down with my kid, and we talked about what he would like (even boys can be picky sometimes, so I didn´t want to take chances...). And I came up with this very rough sketch :

  Seeing an old piece of clothing transforming into something completely new is still exciting to me! I am a self-taught stumbler, who has learned to sew somewhat, through making mistakes in the past. I enjoy creating and stretching my limits. This time I wanted to try something new: painting on fabric.
  So the tree in my rough sketch ended up looking like this:

The tree trunk is painted and the canopy is simply cut out figures of the leftover pieces of the shirt (which wasn´t much), sewed on.

The eyes are yo-yos made of a piece of old sheet, hand-sewn on, and painted. Slight shading in the eyeballs makes the eyes look even more 3D.

Usually I like to add a touch of the idea to the backside also. Why should a garment only be cool in the front? Here the canopy reaches through.

The appliques are simply sewn on, and I deliberately left a small edge hanging loose on the outlines, to make them pop out more.

  For some reason boys´ world of clothing is much more limited than girls´ (not to mention men´s!). Why do they have to always look as tough as they can, with minimal signs of fun...? 

  With this t-shirt I think my boy will have fun, while still keep his cool with his friends. Children should be able to enjoy their care-free world as long as possible! (And the same goes for us adults too!  =)

  The recipe :

  Follow the same instructions as for the recycled t-shirt for kids I made earlier.

   The paint I used here for the tree (from Schjerning ) is especially made for cotton fabrics. There are other brands (but this is the only one I have experience with), and come in a variety of colors, and are sold in craft stores for a good price.

  If you don´t have a basic pattern yet, a good place to shop online is McCall´s Patterns . 

  I must point out, that making a simple t-shirt is very easy! No skills required, the patterns have detailed instructions for making.