Birthday Girl (or Gil) T-Shirt

So my little bean turned 2 today.  It's so hard to believe she is TWO.  She's quite the character, and we're so blessed.  More on her budding personality in posts to follow.  Tonight, it's all about the craft.

I found this adorable shirt in Gymboree last week, and almost shelled out the 22 bucks for it, but thankfully my frugal voice reminded me that she would only wear it one (maybe two) days, then outgrow it unless I bought it three sizes too big for the next several birthdays.  It did inspire me though, to get my craft on and create a little shirt that shouted to the world that my little girl was celebrating her big day.

I found this basic little pink tee from Hobby Lobby, and used my beloved Cricut to cut some remnant fabric I had.  The floral fabric is from Hobby Lobby too, many years ago, and the dark pink is excess from the vintage pillow case I used on this dress last summer.

Cutting fabric on a Cricut is an art ... and one I have yet to master.  You need a good quality interfacing (I used a thin Wonder Under and it wasn't strong enough).  Your speed should be slow, and your pressure high, and your blade depth at around 5 or 6.  I really should have used a new blade, but since I didn't have one, I made do.  The letters came out ok, but next time I'll use a much wider font.  In the end, the letters didn't have enough stabilizer to actually STAY on the shirt (as evidenced when the 'girl' became a 'gil' today at the doctor's office ... ahem).

I cut out a little bird and fused it on the shirt as well.  Then just because I felt like it wasn't quite enough, I stitched a little embroidery around the edge of the bird.  Just because it looked cute.  A couple of makeshift french knots over the "i"s and I was all set.  Cute cute cute.  All in all, about 2 hours time (because I was fighting with my Cricut over the settings), and $2.99 for the t-shirt.  It's no cupcake Gymboree shirt, but Kate loved it all the same.

Happy birthday little bean.  Thank you for making my world so much brighter every day!  Lots of love, and then some more ...