Quick and Easy Applique Flowers to Revamp a T-Shirt

This t-shirt has been sitting in my mending pile for a year, waiting for me to cover up the stain that I somehow got center front on my stomach. I had ideas for an elaborate painted design, but it never quite seemed to happen. Of course I could have trashed the shirt, but the rest of it was in great shape and it pains me to throw away anything pink :) So, I finally sat down, cut out some petal shapes from a synthetic organza, and sewed flowers onto my shirt, giving it fun style and a whole new life.

The fabric that I had was an ombre from one selvedge to the other, so I got to experiment with having petals of different hues, but I think it would look just as nice with a solid. It would also work in just about any fabric, woven or knit. I didn’t pin the petals on. Instead, I positioned the shirt on my sewing machine, laid out the petals, and started sewing. I didn’t worry about the shirt stretching or the petals bunching. I like the texture that comes from the fabrics stretching a bit while sewing.

I sewed the flowers in one continuous motion, starting and finishing in the middle, in a way that allowed for gentle curves and only pivoting at the point of each petal, as drawn above. I stitched the same design twice, to make sure that I didn’t miss the edge of any part of the petals and to make it a bit more secure, since the petal fabric will unravel because the edges are left raw. I chose to use a thread color slightly darker than the petal fabric to emphasize the stitching.

The whole project took me 15mins, and was well worth it for making this shirt wearable again!