Tackling T-Shirt Roses

Everyone has that old t-shirt laying around that you keep meaning to get rid of but somehow just ends up in the back of your drawer, forgotten. My husband was ditching a few and I grabbed them, thinking I would make something crafty from one of them. Here is what I needed:

~ Lampshade

~ T-Shirt

~ Scissors or Rotery Cutter

~ Hot Glue Gun or Fabric Glue

~ Aleen's Tacky Double-Stick Sheets

The first thing I did was cut the bottom hem off the t-shirt, I wasn't going to use it and it would just get in the way.

I then lay out the t-shirt and cut it into 2 inch strips (five total).

I cut each "circle" strip so I had 5 long strips.

I used a hot glue gun for this part but fabric glue would probably work as well. If you do use a glue gun, take care to go slowly and watch what you're doing. I was in a rush and ended up burning myself twice. 

Once I slowed down, I put a thin layer of glue towards the bottom of each strip and folded over as I went. I didn't glue the entire strip at once as the glue at the beginning would have dried by the time I got back to fold the t-shirt over. 

Once all strips were glued/folded in half I grabbed the double-sided tape.

I found Aleene's Tacky Double-Stick Sheets at Michaels, however I also saw it at other craft stores. 

The sheets were too big so I cut them into four pieces. I then rounded the corners.

I carefully peeled off the top piece to expose the top adhesive. I say "carefully" because it is so sticky I kept getting it stuck to myself and found myself swearing calmly extricating myself several times.

I grabbed the folded piece of t-shirt and rolled 2-3 times. 

I then slowly twisted a few times. No rhyme or reason to this method.

I ended up with my first "rose". I cut the end, tucked it underneath, and cut the extra adhesive showing around the rose. I made four more the same way.

Once I finished making the roses I peeled (carefully,again) the bottom off to expose the bottom adhesive.

The adhesive is strong enough to keep the rose on the lampshade but forgiving enough to reposition as a did a couple times until I liked the placement.

This is where I considered stopping. I liked the way it looked with just the plane white on the shade as well as when the shade was put back on the lamp.

It's all a matter of personal preference. I left this overnight but decided the next morning that I wanted just a touch of color to the roses.

I didn't want too much color, just a little so I grabbed this 99 cent chalk pack and used the red.

I used the side of the chalk to lightly shade each flower.

The red chalk came out more as a pink which is what I was looking for. I ran the side of the chalk over each flower, the color didn't take to the entire flower which was fine by me.

I like the end result, and more importantly, I'm happy I could make a t-shirt I was about to toss, into something that would update my sad little lamp shade.

~ B

Although I used different methods, credit for this idea should go to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XpYokjv0iE