Today's Project- DIY Greek Lettered Shirt

I'm not going to lie, I live in my letters. And since I only have a few months left as an active member, I think I'm going to wear them even more often. The issue is that they are just incredibly expensive to buy. When I first joined my sorority 3 years ago, I thought I was extremely lucky to have a greek store on campus. What I didn't realize at the time was that letters are not cheap, and it was time to say goodbye to my money.

There had to be a better way. 

I recently bought a shirt from Target ($6) that I did an appliqué monogram on that I LOVE. I love it so much that I went back this weekend and bought another one. It's actually from the men's section so I bought my normal size in unisex clothing and it's the perfect baggy long sleeve shirt. It's going to be great with jeans or leggings, casual or light working out.

I decided to make my own lettered shirt today with materials that I had, including two different fabrics and fusible interfacing (approximately $1 worth of materials). I couldn't quite find exactly what I wanted in terms of font online so I just kind of made on up myself.

For a grand total of about $7 and an hour of my time, I'm now the proud owner of a new lettered shirt!

I'm in love with how they turned out. My process was relatively simple:

Specs: Letters measure approximately 8" X 3.5" spaced 1/4" apart 

1. Cut out desired inner letters. You can easily find block letters online and simply print them out to use as a pattern. I freehanded because I like to live on the edge.

2. Place inner pattern on backing fabric. Using a roll of Heat 'n Bond, I fused the inner fabric onto a rectangle of the mint green fabric. Ultimately, you could skip this step and simply pin. 

3. Fuse interfacing to wrong side of backing fabric. The trick with lettered shirts is that the letters are sturdy as to not wrinkle when washed. Do not skip this step. 

4. Sew the inner fabric to the backing fabric. If necessary, run a thin amount of Fray glue along the edges so the fabric doesn't fray when sewn. I recommend a standard zig zag stitch to attach. 

5. Cut out letter shape from backing fabric. Again, because I have no patience, I simply cut an outline around the inner pattern in an approximately even fashion. If you want to be extra precise I would recommend drawing on the fabric for perfectly straight lines. 

6. Fuse the letters to the shirt. With strips of Heat n' Bond, attach the letters to the shirt. Before you do the fusing, be sure to try the shirt on with the letters pinned so you have accurate placement. I recommend the letters come up to about 4 inches from the top of the neckline. If you don't want to fuse, pinning is always an option. 

7. Sew the letters to the shirt. Pretty self explanatory. You can also run some fray glue along the edges beforehand for that extra crispness. 

Like I said, I'm incredibly happy with the result! If you're a part of Greek Life and are interested in various greek products, please visit my Etsy Shop (in the top bar!) and we can talk custom orders. I'm currently offering Pocket Tees (embroidered and non-embroidered), hair bows, and key fobs!

Until next time, my fellow crafters.

My Etsy Shop

It's here. I'm freaking out.

What do I do with my hands?

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyMeaganA

Right now my shop is just stocked with Gamma Sigma Sigma merch, but I can take custom orders through messaging! I can't believe my shop is finally open and I'm so excited to see where it leads me.

After spending all day yesterday fighting with my pop up soft box, I finally got some pretty ballin pictures taken and I JUST published my shop.

Can you tell I'm excited? 

Key Fob Tutorial

Update: My tutorial is currently featured on the University of Delaware's UD.I.Y. Pinterest Board! Pretty sweet, huh?

______________________________

It's my first tutorial (squeal)!

I've recently discovered (thanks to a family friend) one of the most simple but adorable sewing projects! Key Fobs are stupid easy to make- even for a beginner sewer- and I can't believe I hadn't thought of the project myself! The key fobs are durable and useful, and can be used to hold your house and car keys, and even as a replacement strap for a clutch! This tutorial can be modified using different size materials to make full size lanyards or even smaller key fobs.

What I used:

• 1 inch cotton webbing (*** For this particular one, I used a lighter weight non-cotton strapping, but I've recently switched over to the heavier cotton)
• Fabric of Choice (at least 12 inches long) 
• 3/4 inch Bias Tape maker
• Heat n' Bond Strip
• 1 inch metal D-ring 
• 1 inch split rings 
• Sewing Machine
• Iron 

Total Time: 10-15 minutes 

I started by cutting my materials to size. I like to make my key fobs big enough so they fit comfortably around my wrist, so with a seam allowance I cut my strapping to 12". Because the fabric needs to be pulled through the bias tape maker, the specs on that are 12" by a little less than 1 1/2". For the fabric, it really depends on the texture, some of the heavier fabrics need to be a little smaller to run through the bias, so you should play with it until it's perfect for you. (I know that's a little general but it's what worked for me! I've learned that sewing isn't really an exact science sometimes.)

While running the fabric through the bias tape maker, be sure to iron it as it comes out so you get the consistent shape. After running it through, I used a small strip of heat n' bond (cut in half) and fused it to the fabric for some added stability and strength! After that, take the paper backing off the heat n' bond and flip it so that the fabric strip and strapping are layered. Depending on wether you're using cotton webbing or something more synthetic, it's important to lay a towel or piece of fabric over the fabric and strapping before you iron to fuse the two materials. This will help prevent any melting on synthetic strapping! 

 Fusing the two materials together makes it a lot easier to sew them together and will help prevent any slippage that might occur. It keeps the materials nice and flat and makes it so that pins are unnecessary! I like having a pin-free fabric, I think it looks cleaner. For this step all you need to do is sew up and down each side to make a permanent connection between the two materials. The next step is super-mega important! Be sure to slide the D-ring onto the material BEFORE you sew it into the key fob shape! If you forget to do this you won't have anything to attach keys too and that would just be not fun at all. When sewing, be sure to put the two good sides together and sew so that you can see only the strapping. Because this material tends to fray, it's important to go over the seam a few times when folding over.

All that's left to do is turn your fob right side out, and sew another seam on the outside next to the D-ring (sorry I didn't take a picture of this step, but you can clearly see the outside seam on the finished product.) This seam will help keep the D-ring in place. After that, just attach the split ring to the D-ring and viola, you have your very own key fob!

This is a super simple project that almost anyone can do! I'm so happy with how the key fobs are turning out and I just had to share how easy it was. All in all making one takes between 10 and 15 minutes! I also have an embroidery machine so I like to embroider on the fabric before running it through the bias tape maker. That adds about another 10 minutes to the total time, but I think the personalized ones are super fun and make great gifts! 

Hopefully this tutorial was easy and straightforward! I can't wait to start sharing more of my projects as I expand this blog! I have plans to open up an Etsy store in the near future so look out world, I'm coming for you!

XO Meagan 

Perfect for Pinterest: 

The Start of Something New

(Sorry for starting this off with a High School Musical song lyric, except not really, no shame)

I am SO excited to finally have created a platform JUST for my crafting experiments! I'll be funneling my crafting posts here from my other blog (meaganwalsh.blogspot.com). I can't wait to start sharing my sewing and crafting projects with everyone! I'll be posting tutorials to some of my easier projects as well as step-by-steps for some Pinterest experiments!

If you haven't seen the latest post on my blog, it's about the Kindle Paperwhite case (below) I made for my good friend Julie! Feel free to check it out and look for more very soon!