D Group T-shirts and an elastic waist skirt

I have been doing a little crafting lately. Nothing really new or exciting. I tend to stick with the things I have done before and things I like best :-) I screen-printed some t-shirts for my D Group girls for graduation. I dyed the shirts Sunshine Orange and I think I will like the color more after it is washed a few times and fades a little.

The image on the front is a Unipeg over an Open Book. If you are not familiar with what a Unipeg is...that's ok, I was not either. But, it is Cassie's favorite mystical creature. It is a cross between a Unicorn and a Pegasus...basically a Unicorn with wings. It is kind of a running inside joke in our D Group and I thought it was the perfect mascot for our T-shirts.

The Open Book is because that is what we say every time we get together so that we will open up to each other. It has been so important for our group to be transparent, real and honest with each other so, "opening our book" was critical to our success.

The back image is a bunch of things the girls said, inside jokes, and memories from the year in the shape of a cross.

I think the shirts turned out great and the girls LOVED them. It was so cute with them all reading them together and laughing and remembering.

This shirt was one of the hardest I have ever done because it had ALOT of little wording on the back. I have been asked a few times how to screen print and specifically how to screen print words and the best advice I can say is...it is hard and every time is different. I had to re-do the screen 3 times for this shirt and that is a painful process. I guess, the best tips I can give are:

1) Learn the screen print process first on an easier image. A great tutorial that I learned on is here at Lil Blue Boo.

2) If you are doing words, make sure your font is pretty large...like 35 - 40 point, minimum. It took me 2 transparencies cut and pasted together to get all the words on the back of this t-shirt.

3) Watch meticulously when you are exposing your photo emulsion coated screen in the sun. I think the magic number for the 3rd try this time was 2 minutes and 15 seconds but, each time I screen print it is different. If you use the sun as your light source, like I do, it depends on where the sun is in the sky, if its overcast, the time of day, etc. As soon as your photo emulsion changes color wait like 30 more seconds and then come inside and wash it off. Too little or too long will under- or over-expose your screen and you will have to start over.

I know, this sounds like a beating and sometimes it is...but, I just love t-shirts and when I get a finished product that actually works, I feel like a million bucks!

Another sewing project I had to whip up VERY quick was an elastic waist skirt for Kinley for Ben's graduation party. She was all set to wear this authentic shirt from Mexico (which was actually a dress for when Kinley was an infant) but, she did not have anything to wear with it...so, literally during her nap the day of the party I made her a turquoise elastic waist skirt. I love these skirts because they are THAT easy and quick to make. I decided to add yellow polka-dot fabric for pockets and yellow hem stitching.

The turquoise worked perfect for the twins turquoise and orange birthday party and of course we wore it to Ben's party as well! 2 uses out of it already!

Look at all the orange and turquoise girls in a row!

Here she is at Ben's party...

and how cute was she as a 10 week old in Mexico with that shirt as a dress!

I think we will take this outfit to Mexico this year too. Lots of pics to come when we get back.