Fashion & Style

There are many different ways for petite women to decorate tee shirts with a floral design. Here are a few different methods.

Floral tee shirts look so great with jeans and skirts that every woman, petite or otherwise, should have at least one in her closet. If you don’t have one though, it’s time you do. Buy a tee shirt to get you started, launder it, then use one of the following techniques:

Buy silk flowers and use glue made for fabric to attach them to the shirt. Choose flowers that will lay somewhat flat. Silk flowers are washable but don’t put them in the dryer. Drip dry instead. If the shirt is a little wrinkled when dry put in the dryer on a cool setting for 5 minutes with a damp washcloth.

Put a drop of fabric paint on the shirt then lay a button in the paint. Press slightly to allow the paint to push up through the holes. Outline the button with a thick ring of fabric paint. Change colors and draw petals then fill them in with paint. Change to a shade of green for making leaves and stems. Buttons with no holes in them work even better. Snap the underneath, threading part of the button off with needle-nose pliers then follow the above steps for making flowers.

Simply use fabric paints to make the flowers. Put various size dots all over the shirt then allow to dry. Use a different color of paint to make petals. Allow to dry completely before adding stems.

Cut out felt pieces to make flowers on the shirt. Cut one large, a medium and then a small design and stack them on top of each other. Sew or glue on yarn for stems and leaves. Attach a small ladybug or bumble bee bead to a flower or two to make it more interesting.

Buy rubber stamps and ink for making tee shirt flowers. You can purchase a few different designs or use only one. Dip the stamp in the ink and press it on the shirt. Enhance the flower by attaching a rhinestone in the center. They look even better when you outline some with glitter paint.

Cut flowers out of cloth scraps. Lay the fabric flowers on the shirt and do a zig-zag pattern around the edges. For a different look outline the flower shapes with coordinating fabric paint. If you have no floral printed fabric simply cut flower and leaf shapes out of other cloth. Denim, plaids, flannel or pieces of satin look really nice.

Use stencils to make perfect flowers with permanent markers or ink pens. Tape the stencil to the shirt and color in each design. Place a piece of newspaper in between the front and back of the shirt to keep the ink from bleeding onto the next layer.

Give tee shirts a quilted look by cutting flower shapes then stuffing them. Cut two shapes and sew them together, leaving room for stuffing. Stuff the flowers and stitch closed. Use glue or a few stitches to connect the center of the flower to the shirt. Or stitch the edges of the flower on with a different color of thread.

If your sewing machine does embroidery you can make beautiful flowers of all types. The best part is the machine does all the work for you. You can also draw the flowers on with disappearing markers then stitch around the design. The marker will be gone in a day or so and leave a lovely floral design.

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