Appliqued Basketball Shirt

The other day I went to Gymboree and wanted to buy everything in the store, as usual. After seeing the cutest sweater with a football on it, I decided to try out making my own appliqued sports shirts. I'm not usually drawn to clothes with sports paraphernalia on them (probably because what I've seen is things like teddy bears playing baseball), but simple sports stuff is pretty cute, I think.

I started with a basketball and I think it turned it out really cute. Here's a tutorial in case you're interested in making one for your little one. It was pretty simple to do. (Please excuse the terrible picture quality).

1. Print a picture of a basketball. I'm not a good artist, so I found a picture of a basketball online to use as my pattern. If you're artistically inclined, you could just draw the basketball lines straight onto the orange fabric.

 2. Trace the basketball lines onto orange fabric using a disappearing fabric marker. The lines will disappear when you wash it, but you'll like cover them with your stitches anyway.

 3. Iron the basketball onto Wonder Under or other fusible fabric paper.

4. Cut out the basketball and remove the paper backing.

 5. Place the basketball in the center of the shirt and iron it on.

 6. Stitch over the drawn lines and around the outside of the basketball. I used the biggest zig-zag stitch that my sewing machine does and I kept the stitches very close together to create a thick black line.

 7. Give your baby boy a big kiss when he wakes up from his nap. :)

Voila! Now you have an adorable shirt for your adorable boy. Next I'm going to try a football. Woo hoo!