I finally get to my stash of t-shirts. Many of these are not even mine; I've inherited them from my children either by osmosis or by fund-raisers gone bad (in other words, each family has to sell ten shirts ... I buy them). Some of these shirts I do save just as is. Many others have saggy sleeves and pinched waists.
What to do with the ones that don't fit quite right? I mean, some of these shirts are truly sentimental, and I get nostalgic just going through them.
I decide to save a couple aside for future projects, like, quite possibly, a t-shirt quilt. Many go into the "I am now a pajama top" pile. The rest of them, I take my fabric scissors (yes, there is a difference between fabric shears and regular paper shears, and never the two shall meet) to, slicing off sleeves, cutting out necklines, and shaving some off the bottoms.
Well, well, well. For all of the people (my children, I mean) who told me that I need to stop my semi-hoarding, these extra "workout" shirts come in very handy this evening.
My son is creating team t-shirts for a competitive party he will be attending this weekend. After much planning and some perusing around the craft store, we decide that iron-on transfers will far exceed hand-drawn logos. I run to Staples to make sure there is enough colored ink to create five shirt transfers. Turns out we don't need the extra color ink, but we will, so it's a decent investment.
We get to the ironing-on part, and both of us chicken out. Although we do have extra transfer paper, we do not have extra t-shirts. What if we screw it all up? What if it all goes into the proverbial shitter? Where will we be then?
AHA!
I run upstairs to my pile of shirts, still waiting for permanent homes, and grab an old gray shirt that has had its sleeves and neck and bottom trimmed away. This should be perfect. We try out the extra transfer on the cotton t-shirt ... and it works beautifully. BEAUTIFULLY.
And do you know why this happens?
It happens because I have all of these extra shirts on which to experiment. It happens because I sort through the dressers full of shirts. It happens because I have a whole slew of old t-shirts willing to be branded by an iron-on transfer. If I'd have been short any of the supplies, this may not have been an exceptional day.
Next time you're tempted to walk into my house and mutter, "Who lives likes this, anyway!", I can assure you that the T-Shirt Transfer Rescuer lives here and will proudly show you my huge stash along with my recently decorated (via transfer paper) t-shirt.
