Big Brother/Sister to the Rescue!

It's baby season around here!  So many of my friends and family members have/are having babies this spring, and I've been fine tuning my favorite baby gifts.  But what about the big siblings? When I had my second baby I was most stressed about how to ease the transition for my oldest daughter, and I really appreciated gifts which kept her busy and made her feel proud about her new role in the family as a big sister. 

My oldest daughter inspired these big brother / big sister shirts & capes.  Whenever I need to go get a diaper and wipes she runs and grabs them saying "Lulu to the rescue!" I thought it would be fun to make "big sibling to the rescue" shirts.  The cape attaches to the shirt with velcro (for washing!) and can double as a burp cloth.  Fun huh?  I think this is going to be my go to big sibling gift from now on.

Want to make your own?  Keep reading for how I made these shirts!

I've never done freezer paper stenciling before, so I'm no expert.  I'll go through what I did, but if you'd like a more in depth freezer paper stenciling tutorial you can find one on Dana's website here.

I used my silhouette cameo to cut out "BIG BROTHER to the rescue" and "BIG SISTER to the rescue" from freezer paper.  I put the glossy side down on the mat (this is the side which you will iron to the t shirt) and fed it through my cameo.  Don't have a cameo?  No worries.  You can print out the words and just use and exacto knife to cut out the letters.
 

All cut out!

Now iron on to your shirt!  The middles of the letters you'll have to add back separately.  Don't worry if you position the stencil incorrectly at first, you can always pull it up and iron it again.

I put a piece of cardboard between the front and back of the shirt.

I used tulip fabric paint, according to the directions on the bottle.

I used a foam brush to dab on the paint:

Here it is all painted!  I actually had a bit of a problem with my black paint bleeding through the freezer paper.  I'm not sure if I applied it to thickly or if it is a problem specifically with the black paint, but the silver came out looking great!  After the paint dried, I simply peeled away the freezer paper and it was finished. 

Alright now for the cape.  I cut a large rectangle of flannel, and another of fleece.  I put the right sides together and I sewed around three of the sides.

Then I turned the cape back to the right sides, and folded down the edges of the only open side of the cape, pinned, and sewed a seam along the top.  I decided to sew a stitch all along the edge of all the other sides of the cape as well for consistency.  You don't have to make these capes two layers, you could simply just finish the edges for a single layer of fabric (or use fleece which won't require the edges being finished).  The reason that I did two layers was so that it would be a more absorbent burp cloth, should the kids want to use it that way.

Finally, I attached the velcro both to the cape and to the shirt.  I made sure that the scratchy side of the velcro was on the t-shirt, in case the cape is used as a burp cloth. 

And that's it!  Not a horribly complete tutorial, but I hope that it's enough to see how these shirts are made.  If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer!