We Just Wanted to Make PW a T-Shirt

In anticipation of this...

a group of my blogging and IRL pals decided we needed matching T-shirts to show how much we heart the Pioneer Woman and her book, her cookbook, her recipes, her photography, her confessions, her writing style...well, you get my point.

Cris over at Goodeness Gracious handled the design...

and Liz from Two Maids a Milking, Leah from Beyer Beware, and I decided we needed a "craft night" so we tackled the T-shirts. Well, Liz decided we needed a craft night and Leah and I went along for the ride!

Remember my previous post...the one where I listed all the type of bloggers I'm NOT? Remember that "Crafty Blogger" was on that list? There was a good reason for that.

Here's my first attempt to print out the iron-decal. Notice anything?

Yep, I printed it on the wrong side. Once I corrected that mistake, I turned Liz's kitchen into a print shop and made nine decals (minus the first one).

And I cut them out according to the package directions. I'm a total stickler for following the directions when it comes to doing things that I have NO idea how to do!

Then I took a break from being crafty because as I was printing and cutting, Liz we fixing us a delicious meal...

It was a delicious meal that included scrumptious roasted red potatoes, creamed spinach (from scratch), glazed carrots (brown sugar + honey = yummy) and lamb chops! Look for the lamb chop recipe on Liz's blog soon.

Unfortunately, Leah had to bow out of the evening because she is a wonderful volunteer in her community and other duties called. She missed out on lots of fun but we totally understood!

Back to the craft project...we lined up the decal on the shirt.

Then I pressed the iron down for 15-20 seconds per section. Well, for the first shirt I ran the iron over the decal and didn't count...then we tried to peel the backing off...then we put the iron back on it...then we tried to peel the backing off...and then we put the iron back on...I think you get the picuture.

We eventually got the backing off but it was hard work. So, for the second shirt I held the iron firmly down on one section at a time.

I even counted out loud to 20...told you that I'm a stickler for following directions!

It helped but we still had lots of issues with the edges not sticking, so we got creative with the tools we were using to help fuse the decal to the shirt...our fingers were getting singed so we had to get creative.

Yes, that's Liz using a kitchen spoon...it was the tool that we found worked the best. See the plate stand in the background below...used that too!

Once we had the decal firmly on the shirt, we started to peel the backing away from the shirt. It wasn't a pretty process but we got it done.

The first couple of shirts were rough and the background turned out a bit dark but we pretended it was supposed to look like that and forged ahead. I think we peaked at about shirt number 4. It came out ALMOST perfect.

Then it happened...we got a bit big for our britches and started to improvise. The decal on shirt number 5 wasn't sticking as good as it should so Liz decided to just set the iron back on it for just a second. This was NOT on the instruction sheet...and now we know why.

Notice anything? Maybe that "heart" is missing. Wonder where it went? I'll tell you where it went...it melted onto the iron!

So, now we were down to 8 shirts!

Oops...we got our act back together and finished strong. The iron might have gotten a bit too hot...notice the new embellishments below.

You say they are marks made by the iron...I say they are just part of the design!

We finished with 8 shirts ready to be worn the next morning when we headed to Cincinnati to meet the Pioneer Woman...Liz and I were pretty proud of ourselves!

The next morning I pulled my nifty custom T-shirt over my head and heard an awful sound...a sound that didn't bode well for the future of my custom T-shirt.

Yes, all of our hard work ruined with one stretching of the shirt! I didn't want to walk into the bookstore and have people not be able to read about my love of The Pioneer Woman...just not acceptable.

You see, I bought the cute stretchy T-shirts from Old Navy with the thought that they would look much nicer than the 2 for $5 ones at the craft store. I didn't think about the compatibility between a stretchy T-shirt and an iron-on decal. The two do NOT mix!

So instead of meeting the Pioneer Woman in cute matching T-shirts, we improvised. We picked out the best looking T-shirt of the bunch and presented it to Ree when it was our turn to meet her and have our books signed.

See it there on the table in front of her? I told her that she may just want to look at it...not try to wear it!

Thank goodness she isn't a Crafty Blogger either!