Tree T-Shirt for Paul

My husband and I picked up this wooden tree in Puebla, Mexico. We both loved the colors, the simplicity and the puzzle-like fit of the pieces. When we got home it was displayed on our bookshelf for a few weeks before it inevitably fell over and onto the floor. Because it is made of very lightweight wood the pieces cracked and broke apart, ruining the puzzle-like fit. Since the tree can no longer be displayed I thought I’d transfer it onto a t-shirt so my husband can still enjoy it.

I started by tracing the pieces onto paper using just a normal pen. I filled in the spaces so I could better see what was tree and what wasn’t. I also wrote ‘Y’ or ‘O’ for yellow or orange onto the tree-tops (those aren’t leaves or fruits, just color reminders.)

The next step was to transfer the pattern onto the t-shirt. I used carbon transfer paper from Sublime Stitching which comes with both black and white sheets… very useful.

Last, but not least, I stitched it up using the split stitch. I chose the split stitch because I haven’t worked with it much. At the beginning of the tree it was pretty slow going, but by the end I think I got a lot better (and quicker) at the split stitch. It’s not the best for going around corners, but how else could I learn that if I didn’t just try it?

I gave it to Paul a couple of nights ago and he put it on right away. I think he looks great!

Just for fun I thought I’d create a reusable embroidery PDF pattern from the tree design. You can download it for free. Please upload photos of anything you make to the Brooklyn Embroidery Flickr Group, I’d love to see them.