I thought it was a treat but it turns out it was a trick.

I had a moment of maternal excellence today. This morning, as I drank my coffee, I flipped through Family Fun magazine, which I had brought home from the office to preview. Generally, I find most of their articles and crafts sort of... scrapbook mom-ish- and I am not a scrapbooker. I like to make things that are useful, not just decorative. Even useful and ugly is okay with me. Which brings me to the t-shirt.
Family Fun devoted two of their pages to upcycling t-shirts. This is not a new concept to me. What caught my eye was a new reason to up-cycle: to hide a stain.

Why, my daughter has a perfectly good t-shirt that she only got one or two wearings out of before it acquired an unfortunate chocolate stain.


This stain causes me chagrin because it is stronger than my laundry powers. I found the secret to defeating powerful stains in Family Fun magazine: appliques.
Here's a better picture of the stain. It's a little above center in this photo.

And so this evening, I did a Google Image search for "applique t-shrt" to get inspired. I rummaged through my fabric stash and found some felt and a printed cotton that I love, and got to work.
The layout:


I cut out the appliques, and began to sew them on by hand. I quickly grew impatient and got my machine out. I had the shirt done in about 20 minutes, and if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty cute. I would wear it.



Madison, on the other hand, thinks she will wear this shirt "maybe around Halloween" because it's "spooky." She's not planning on putting it into the everyday rotation.

Pink t-shirt, you win.