Tee Time

This year at Christmas I hand made absolutely every single gift I gave; this was a HUGE endeavor, one that I've attempted to do for years now and always failed. Well, not this past Christmas (side note: I realize it is almost 2 months after Christmas and I'm just blogging about this now... I'm slowing getting my act together...).

Christmas of 2008 was the year of me finally pulling through with all my handmade gifts (and only a couple of them were late!) I must say though, the best way to go through with handmade gifts is to simply just not have enough money to rely on buying something in case your gift takes too long, or is finicky and frustrating, or any number of related excuses that always cause me to not make/finish handmade things. I HAD to make things this past year, or no one would be getting anything (well, or they'd be getting something lame, like a blank t-shirt. Not as exciting as a t-shirt with pretty designs).

So, to start off my gift-giving-handmade extravaganza, I have posted just the t-shirts that I made for people:

This was my second Christmas being part of the "adult draw" with the Jess family. This is the rule: once you're finished your undergrad/college, you no longer qualify to receive gifts from every aunt and uncle. This means you are put in the adult draw and have to draw the name of the person you will give a gift to. Last time I got my cousin Colin and I made him a Colin Action Figure. This time I drew my Uncle Glenn and I made him this t-shirt. I also made him something else, but it doesn't fit into my "Tee Time" blog. It's hard to tell, but I used a combo of silk screening, hand painting and free-hand-sewing-machine sewing/embroidery (I'm not sure that there's an official word for that last part).

This one was actually a custom order for my roomie, Vikki. This tee was made for one of her co-workers, Ashley. It's based on a tattoo that is a major part of a book that Ashley loves (this is the back of the tee). Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the book right now (but I'm pretty sure the author's name is Jacqueline Carrey).

   This one I made for my bro.

And here's the same thing, only different colours for my bf. In this close-up pic you can see the free-hand sewing I did on my machine a little better.

And for my cat-loving roomie, a pj top with a feline silhouette, whom we lovingly refer to as Barb (who is Vikki's cat; yes, that's right, her name is Barb. She came pre-named, and Vikki thought it was too hilarious to change. I agree).

And, finally, this top is for my other roomie. I had to use embroidery backing behind all the crazy stitching that I did, which then melted when I ironed the silk screened bird to heat set it. Oops! I think it will soften up after some washes.

There. All the shirts I made for the holiday season are now posted. Stay tuned for images of the non-shirt gifts I made...!