Gender Reveal

It's official!  Baby Nash #2 (and the cause of my lack of blogging) is a girl.  I guess all of the old wive's tales about girls making mom sicker are true in our case.  This pregnancy has been a doozy.  We found out the sex the week before Thanksgiving, and I wanted to do something fun for the gender reveal at Thanksgiving dinner.  Unfortunately, it's pretty tough to do a Thanksgiving themed anything in pink or blue.  No one wants to eat a blue pumpkin pie or find a girl pilgrim figurine in their stuffing.

Instead, we let Robert announce the gender with his outfit.

I am Thankful for Turkey, Pie, and my Little Sister

This was a shockingly easy no-sew project and was a huge hit.  The supplies needed are:

1. A t-shirt
2. Scraps of different fabric.  I used three types: the orange with gold dots for most of the letters, the leaf fabric for Thankful, and a Thanksgiving themed fabric that included the turkey and pie in the design.
3. A quarter yard of Heavy Duty Wonder-Under (found at Jo-Ann Fabrics)
4. An iron and ironing board
5. Fabric scissors, both large and small
6. Letter templates (which you can create using a computer print out and scotch tape)

To Create:

• Heat the iron to medium high (wool) heat and iron the non-paper side of the Wonder Under to the back side of the fabric.  Make sure the fabric and Wonder-Under are firmly affixed to each other.  I found that I needed a good 10 seconds of heat to make this happen.

• For pictures, cut the design out of the fabric.
• For letters, create a template by printing out words using a simple, bolded font.  
  • Tape each word to the backside of the Wonder-Under with the print facing down.
  • Cut out each letter so it is right side up when alone.
• Use the small scissors to cut out details, like the feathers around the edge of the turkey or the inner holes in letters like "a" and "e".

The front of an L and the back of an i

• Fully lay out the t-shirt design so you get a good idea about spacing and the overall look of the shirt.  Now is the chance to redo anything before fusing!
• Peel the paper off of the back of the Wonder-Under.  Make sure you don't inadvertently peel off the whole piece of Wonder-Under.  (If you do accidentally, you can re-iron before removing the paper.)
  • If the paper is hard to remove, use a toothpick to gently pry it off.
• Replace your design and check to make sure your iron is hot.  Double check your spacing!
• Iron for about 15 seconds to fuse the fabric to your t-shirt.

And voila.  A customized shirt.  This craft project could be used for just about any occasion, but it will always have a special place at Thanksgiving for our family.