The Birthday Shirt

Cousin Natalie in California has a birthday coming up, as in 3 days from now. So what better day to get my act in gear (seems I've taken a hiatus on the craft front since Christmas) than today. This is actually an improvement on my part. I typically do things the day of, or... never.

I wanted to do something fun she could wear but I didn't want it to be too birthday-ish otherwise she can only wear it that one day. And, if the gift doesn't get there by Sat I'm still in the clear.

After taking M to school Lizzie and I braved the freezing temperatures and walked down to Gap Kids. I figured as long as the sun was shining we should go for it. Lizzie went into a deep freeze induced coma only moments after starting off. She only thawed out and came to again an hour later when we returned, which made for a nice, relaxing shopping experience. It also meant that the ONE t-shirt I went for resulted in 2 sweaters and 2 shirts for Mahlon and 3 pants, 1 sweater, and who knows how many tops for little Missy. In my defense, they were all on clearance and soooo cute.

But back to the shirt. I worried it might be a wee bit girly for Nat. But Nat is a girl who doesn't let anyone define her so I think she can pull it off. She'll make it her own just by owning it. I tried to temper it with a freezer paper stencil with her birth date "01-09". The "01" is on the front and the "09" wraps around the back (as shown in photo 3 from the top).

I used satin ribbon for the strings, letting them free hang with just the button tacking them down. All in all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Now it just has to get in the mail, 2-day, Saturday delivery guaranteed. Another plus, should I ever end up in prison, I've got experience stenciling numbers on shirts.