Reverse Appliqued Shirts

I wanted to make shirts for the kids to celebrate them being big brothers/sister to the new baby. I looked at iron-on letters, thought about doing freezer paper, and even free-handing like I did on the boys' shirts a few years ago. I didn't love any of those ideas, so I went with a reverse applique and fabric marker version.

I went through my fabric and scraps and puled out this plaid from a stash I got at a garage sale the summer before. (Total side tangent, there was an entire greenhouse full of sewing supplies - fabric, trims, etc. These seemed like the most practical pieces for me to buy, but I could see someone who likes to sew go crazy there. In addition, they had filed the entire garage, front yard and back yard. Super well organized garage sale put together by the family members of a hoarder who had died. They said that the whole basement was still full. Anyway...)

The fabric on the two blue shorts were left over from projects I had done. The Big Brother stripes were what I used to make the curtains, crib skirt, and diaper organizer for my first born (and the others too as they came along.) The Big Sister fabric is the same that I used on a skirt for me and a gift I made for a cousin.

Lastly, and not on purpose, but I love the connection now the fabric on the Little shirt was from my neighbor Marie. She had given me a stash when she was still alive because she knew I liked sewing. I like that even though the two of them never got to meet, that my baby girl still started out her life with some kind of link back to my pseudo grandma.

Once my baby was born and her gender revealed, the "sister" portion was added on with a fabric marker.

I was actually surprised how very easy the reverse applique process was.

I used this great tutorial at Sweet Verbena (she has a lot of other good ideas on there, another of which I'm hoping to do as soon as I feel like I can get back into sewing.)

I enjoyed making the shirts for my kiddos so much that when I was making a baby gift for a friend, I made him a personalized onesie too.

Paired up with a mini flannel and super soft minky-ish fabric, I hope it was a good gift.