4 Year Fire Helmet Shirt

Another year has passed & I'm sharing with you the shirt I made for Anders 4th (YES, his 4th BIRTHDAY)!

 I'm hooked on reverse appliques, I have made shirts many in the past. 

Here are the links if you want to revisit them...

2nd year

3rd year

2011 Valentine's

2012 Valentine's

This year, we are going with a fire truck theme for a party, so I made the shirt to follow suit.  Plus, I secretly hope this will become his "all time favorite shirt" that I need to pry off of him each night to wash to be ready for the next day.

I Googled images until I found one I liked.  This one has considerable more detail than previous tees I've made, So I reversed the image, to try something new...

  I sandwiched the fabric that I want exposed (black) between the reversed image & the wrong side of the shirt & literally sewed right thru the paper.

(my theory was a double negative, will make a positive)

 I then carefully peeled away the paper (this was trickier & took way longer that I thought it would).  I used a slightly smaller stitch length (3) than I normally sew with to try to prevent stitches from breaking while pulling away the paper.

Here is the exterior.  I went over the stitching again for security & because I like a thicker outline of the detail.

 Then I cut away the red... again, with this amount of detail & closeness of stitching lines, it was more challenging than past reverse appliques.

 I used a scrap piece of white knit fabric & Stitch Witchery for the front of the helmet & cheated with an iron on number (of which I stitched down also)

 WARNING:  With this amount of detail & closeness's of stitching lines, there was a spot that ripped :( 

I went back over the outside edge of the helmet with a small zig zag stitch to fix the hole & try to prevent future tears.

Overall, I do love the look of this shirt & so does Peepers!

Thank You