ModCloth-Inspired: Valentine Shirts!

It's the start of February and I've been seeing a lot of Valentine's projects floating around online so I decided to join the fun. I like making matching stuff for my daughter Andrea and niece Helaena. They look so cute when they wear matching clothes! I decided to make them matching shirts for Valentine's Day. I searched around for an inspiration and found this:

'Get Your Heart Checked Top' from ModCloth'

It looked easy enough to do so I got to work. First, I searched through Andrea's 'goodwill' pile (old clothes given to her by older cousins) and would you believe??? I found 2 shirts of the same design... and one was a size Large (for Helaena), the other a size Small (for Andrea). How perfect is that?

First I needed to make the neckline of these shirts a little more v-shaped. I sewed a gathering stitch from the middle of the neckline down around 3/4 inches long... and pulled. Then secure the stitch.

There...a little more v-shaped.

Then I searched my stash for material I can use as applique and found this:

It's Andrea's old pajamas which snagged so there's a small hole at the back. I put it away to make clothes for her dolls but I think its perfect for this project... see the heart prints? I wanted to save the leg parts because I've seen some projects online where you can use those as sleeves so I cut off leg parts.

And used the top part to make 2 heart-shaped appliques. I then sewed on the appliques to the front of the shirt. I hand-sewed. I think there is some iron-on thing you can use to make appliques and that does sound easier only I have no idea where to get those so for this project, I had to sew them on.

After sewing the appliques on... I made bows from a satin ribbon and glued them at the center. And I was done!

Oh, and I also removed the gathering ribbons on the sleeves... with the ribbon in the middle of the heart, I felt it was a little too much already. I'm sure my girls will love these! I can't wait to have them wear this on Valentine's Day!

I linked up on the following link parties: