A few weeks ago I thought I would get a bit creative for a friend of mine's little boy's birthday. There is something so nice about making gifts for children, especially when you know they will really appreciate it. I decided that instead of making something from scratch, I would customise instead.
So, I thought what better thing to do than to make a robot to applique onto a jumper that I had bought from H&M. If you want to do something similar, then here is what you will need: Jumper or T-shirt - you can find this jumper here, Felt - a few different colours, fabric glue, Googly eyes with shanks, scissors, pins, paper, pen/pencil, needles, embroidery thread, sewing thread and a sewing machine or very patient hand sewing skills.
Firstly, design your pattern on paper, I used squared paper to help with the straight angles for a robot, but use whatever works for you and your chosen design. Then choose the colour of your base layer, I decided to make the robot out of grey and use 2 layers to make it really durable for a child's jumper.
After I had pinned the pattern piece to the felt, I cut it out and glued the two layers together with fabric glue to keep them from moving around.
I then made some buttons and other bits to make my robot a little more fun. I glued these on and then made sure they would stay on, by sewing them on too.
I then cut two slots for the eyes and pushed my googly eyes through and attached the washers on the back. I used these type of eyes instead of stick-on as I didn't want them to fall off!
I positioned my robot in the middle of the front of the jumper using pins and then began to zigzag stitch around all of the outside of the robot and over the middle panel to make sure it was all secure. With hindsight I should have used Bondaweb to hold it in place on the jumper as it did end up moving about - even with using pins.
Have you done anything like this recently, let us know in the comments or show us on Instagram or twitter by using #livelovemake. We would love to see them.
H, xxx
