Refashioning: Kenzo Inspired Eye Shirt...How to Iron On Sequin Patches (Large)

I am also a fan of the French fashion house "Kenzo." Kenzo is well-known for being graphic and sporty. This is one of their most sold items: The Eye T-Shirt.

These also retail around $100.

I just showed you in my last post how I iron on small patches. This time, I will show you how I do not only larger patches, but also ones with sequins.

I found this really great blouse at Goodwill. I like that the black lines almost give it a pop-art "drawn" sort of look--almost like the wearer is a cartoon character.

I found this huge sequin eye iron-on patch on eBay for just over $1.00.

Okay, as I've already said, the best way to get a patch to adhere is to iron it from the wrong side of the clothing item. However, it's nigh to impossible to get the placement correct if you start ironing from the back side initially. So you need to make sure that your patch sticks to the front well enough so that you can turn the shirt inside out without it falling off.

With a larger patch, this becomes REALLY challenging--especially when dealing with sequins that could potentially melt if the iron is hot enough!

What to do? Well, this is how I do it.

First, I place my patch exactly where I want it on the front of the clothing item. Then, I carefully place a T-Shirt over top the patch and begin ironing the T-Shirt.

Then, VERY CAREFULLY AND LIGHTLY, I hit several key points directly on the patch itself from the top. Don't hold the iron on too long! Really important! Just barely get the patch to adhere so you can turn the shirt inside out!

IF THIS DOESN'T WORK: You can also use spray adhesive to get your patch to stick, but be warned: (1) Spray adhesive kinda gets everywhere if you're not careful and makes your hands (and surrounding surfaces) really annoyingly sticky for a long time. (2) Too much spray adhesive could react with the patch's adhesive and make it less likely to melt properly. (3) It's much easier to place the patch down where you want it and get it to stick there with an iron, versus holding a huge patch up in the air, spraying it, and then trying to place it properly without it folding and sticking to itself--especially with larger patches!

Once the shirt is inside out, then you can iron the heck out of it.

Leave the iron on one location for up to five seconds, then move it to another location. (You can leave the iron on up to ten seconds if the fabric is cotton. This shirt is polyester, so I didn't want it to melt.) You may need to repeat this several times to get the stubborn adhesive to melt and stick enough. 

Once that is down, let the shirt cool a few seconds and bend the fabric away from the sides of the patch to make sure you have a good enough seal. If you don't, hit that particular place from the wrong side for a few seconds more.

Done! I'm not 100% thrilled with the overlap of the patch and button placket, but. . .the eye wasn't perfectly symmetrical, so this was actually the best and straightest placement for it.

Anyways...I like it! Looks really modern!

(As always, turn the clothing item inside out when you wash it and line dry it--even if it says you can tumble dry it.)

The End!

Refashioning: Adding Graphics to a Sweater

You may or may not remember this post, where I merged a gorgeous tiger graphic from an old ratty crop top to the front of a dress. Anyways, I had taken the pictures with my phone and wasn't able to comment in between the pictures, so I've been kinda feeling like I needed to re-blog this method. That, and the fact that I really like this method and have done it a few times since that last post, I decided to re-show this same process using different clothing items.

Here is a black sweatshirt that I really like, but I have lots of black shirts, so I was willing to let it get embellished. (Disregard the clothing hanging behind it. These are not the droids you are looking for...)

I found this super cute sequin heart smiley face off the dollar rack, but as you can see. . .it's on a shirt I would NEVER wear.

Harvest time! (3/4" seam around it).

I ironed it on the wrong side to make sure it was flat.

Then, I folded the sweatshirt in half and put pins down the fold to delineate the middle.

Then, I lined up the points of the heart with the pins, folded one side of the heart over and sprayed the back with adhesive spray.

I repeated the spraying on the other half of the heart.

The purpose of spraying the graphic with spray adhesive is so that the graphic will stay in place. You could also use fusible iron-on backing. . .in which case, you may not even have to sew anything once the graphic has been ironed on. . .but I HAVE a sewing machine and spray adhesive, so. . .Why buy something extra?

Even though the graphic was stuck on, I still pinned it in place, because sometimes the fabric stretches funny and pins help that problem.

If you are doing the sewing method, this is where things may get tricky in your head, because if a shirt is already sewn together, how are you going to get the machine inside the shirt so the graphic can get sewn on properly? Like. . .it would be super easy if the shirt weren't sewn together yet. You would just sew the graphic onto the front piece of the shirt and then sew the shirt together. However, you can't do that when the shirt is already sewn together, unless you take it apart. 

Don't worry. . .it's going to take a little finagling. . .but don't worry. You don't have to take anything apart. This is why spray adhesive is so helpful: The graphic will stick to the clothing all during this squishing and pushing process so you don't have to worry too much.

Remember, you have two holes to work with: the neck hole and the bottom seam. 

Set your machine to a zig-zag stitch and put your machine as far back through the neck hole as you can manage. Then sew forward around your graphic, removing pins as you go, as far forward as you can. Cut your threads and remove your shirt from the machine.

Then, put your machine through the bottom hem as far back as you can go. (You should meet up with the last stitches you had made through the neck hole). Continue sewing forward until you meet up with the first stitches you made through the neck hole. Cut your threads and you're done!

You can see that all the seams of the actual sweatshirt are raw and unfinished, so I didn't even bother trimming the excess off around the heart.

Here is another project I did the same way. I took an adorable sequin heart off a nasty T-shirt and sewed it onto a nice, black sweater!

If you are worried about the graphic pillowing out from your garment (because the spray adhesive is going to wash out eventually), you can take a needle and thread and tack it down somewhere in the middle. Only one or two stitches are needed.

The seams on this sweater are all finished, so I did trim around the outer part of the heart, just to clean it up a bit.

The End!