Oh Christmas Tree!

I get these crazy ideas that I can make just whip something up quickly on the sewing machine! I saw a shirt made with ribbon and cut to look like a Christmas Tree! In typical Tracy fashion, I said, "I can DO that!!". So, I set out to do just that! I picked up a few of these shirts last year on super clearance. I think I spent less than $1 on this shirt from Target at the end of the season. Well, also in typical Tracy fashion, I thought I'd make the "tree" better than the example shirt I had seen. So... I used many more ribbons and different trims. Looks cute all laid out there, doesn't it?

Yes, it does. Then I remembered I 'd have to sew those suckers down. But, first, I had to cut them in the tree shape. My first order of business was sewing the white ruffle to the green polka dot ribbon though.

Then I moved all of my ribbons to my cutting mat and used my acrylic ruler to cut them into the tree shape.

Ooooh, la la!

Then I had to teeeediously cut teensy strips of iron-on fusible interfacing, and iron it on. Not bad until the ribbons got skinnier (or curvy) and smaller in width!

There's all of the pieces with the interfacing ironed on to one side. The next step is to peel off the other side of the interfacing then lay it out on the shirt and iron it down, being sure to keep your lines straight!

Oh and don't forget to heat seal the edges of your ribbons before ironing them down! *If I was at home I would use my wood burning tool instead of a lighter. Mostly because it is fun. OH, and using a lighter this many times makes your thumb sore from flicking the Bic so many times. That sounds weird.

There it is all ironed down! Pretty!

I sewed down every ribbon. Yes. I sewed two lines on each ribbon, one at the top and one at the bottom.

That left lots of threads to snip on the front...

and on the inside!

But, all of the tedious work paid off. It is super cute! :)