Football T Shirt ReModel

Welcome to today's edition of the Crafty Football Blog Hop. No need to jump today, cause here we are.

This year will be Superbowl 50.

Not Superbowl L, for obvious reasons.

But let's go back in time, to Superbowl XL. Or #40, whichever you prefer.

It was supposed to be a far different outcome, at least as far as this shirt's original owner was concerned when this was printed before the event.

 For the epic story of tragedy (for the Seahawks, that is), visit Wikipedia here.

An interview with the referee of the game was front page, headline  news here when he admitted that the call was probably wrong and that he was sorry. 

We found this in a thrift store, and had to bring it home. It is now too small, and the request from the client (my son) was: make it fit me now.

Mom! Now!

the second graft for our dragon Fafner. If you size this up, you can see the two rolled edges on the outside of the stitching. Makes a nice double frame.

I've done many transplants, grafts and total gut remodels of tshirts over the years, so this is standard operating procedure around here.

The design is unbalanced

and a little tasteless to my mind

Here is the recipient base. Not a color match, but close and they work together (team colors changed slightly over the years)

Folded up shirt, modeling what a straight transplant would look like.

Meh

To get an idea of how a cut-up would look, I copied the shirt (took two passes)  and cut out the elements to play around with them

Various arrangements were examined

As the original design would show, I could turn the shirt inside out and use the reverse.

And then tragedy struck: somebody wanted the original shirt as is. And another somebody wants a rebuilt model.

With some scanning, cutting and pasting and editing on the computer (in Paint: a blunt tool but one I'm skilled with) - we can rebuild him!

I changed the logo and removed the gruesome.

The wrinkles and crackles were considered an old school feature and not to be smoothed out. I did move the elements around to make it a  bit more balanced.

I added a border to make a better visual transition from printed, woven material to solid knit. Generally, I don't like to sew a woven to a knit, but this was my best option for my available materials. The client has spoken! 

This passed muster with the client/son. 

I printed it out on transfer material. Glad I had a new ink cartridge; these sheets soak up the ink and read a little lighter than originals because of it.

Follow the directions for this stuff, whichever brand you buy.  Printer ink is not lightfast or waterproof until you do this part. And you are going to be handwashing this from now on if you want it to last.

The border is also handy for stitching the material to the shirt. 

It's important to make sure the recipient shirt is as 'ongrain' as a readymade shirt can be (which is to say: Not Much). A knit tube will keep twisting over time, and frankly that means a woven applique of this size will.....not last that long.

Spraying with starch and ironing it first helps.

I did use a fusable layer between the two layers. I've done this with knit on knit appliques, and it keeps things together longer. 

It also helps to deal with unraveling.

This is a good reverse cut-out applique with stabilizing. Pretty shirt!

This is a bad reverse applique without stabilizing. And a really sad end to a project.

I used a straight stitch around the image first, then trimmed the edge to the stitching.

  

Then I overcast with a zig zag.

Superhero model with cheap effects. I am sewing for teen boys. I do what the client requests. No, I don't like how big and rubbery this applique is, but....the client is always right (mom sighs....)

Because the applique was big enough, I didn't have to reverse the shirt this time. 

Another epic moment in Seahawk history preserved, for TWO!

Will they repeat? 

photo from SI Kids website, Getty Images source

This is what happiness looks like in Seattle