DIY: Rainbow Spring tshirt! Tuto: T-shirt de printemps arc-en-ciel !

To celebrate the Spring we made a rainbow flower t-shirt.
Pour célébrer le printemps, nous avons décider de peindre un t-shirt aux couleurs de l'arc-en-ciel.

What you need / De quoi avez-vous besoin

• an (organic, of course! ;)) blank t-shirt /un t-shirt (bio, bien sûr ! ;)) sans décoration
• some freezer paper / du papier de boucher
• an inkjet printer / une imprimante jet d'encre
• an X-acto knife / un cutter
• waterbased fabric paint in different colors (we use Permaset paints) / de la peinture acrilique pour tissus 
• a small container filled with water to clean the paintbushes / un verre d'eau pour nettoyer les pinceaux
• a paint brush / un pinceau
• an iron (to heat-set the paint) / un fer à repasser

Pattern / Patron

How to / Comment faire

Cut a sheet of freezer paper the size of a regular Letter size paper. Print the pattern on the non-shiny side.
Trace the flower borders carefully with an X-acto knife and remove the petals and the heart of the flower.
Coupez la taille d'une feuille A4 and le papier de boucher. Imprimer le modèle sur la partie non-brillante. 
Suivre les traits au cutter afin d'évider la fleur.

Set the iron on low temperature and iron the shiny side of the paper on the t-shirt. If you misplace it you can always peel it off and iron again.
Place another sheet of freezer paper under the pattern to make sure that the paint won't stain the back of the t-shirt.
Faire chauffer le fer à repasser à température douce et repasser la partie brillante contre le t-shirt pour la faire adhérer. Si vous vous trompez, décollez le papier et recoller le papier.
Placez une autre feuille de papier de boucher de l'autre côté du motif (à l'intérieur du t-shirt) afin de protéger le dos.

Paint carefully the flower with your kids. 
Peignez la fleur avec vos enfants.

When you are done peel off the paper. You can touch up the paint if you are not completely satisfied.
And voilà!
Lorque vous avez fini, décollez le papier. Vous pouvez faire des retouches si nécessaire. 
Et voilà !

Let it dry overnight of use a hairdryer if you can't wait.
Laisser sécher une nuit ou utiliser le sèche-cheveux si vous ne pouvez pas attendre. 
 
On the following day, set the paint with an iron. I usually iron the design for 2mn with the iron set on wool. Make sure to cover all areas and best of all do not burn the fabric.
Le lendemain, fixez la peinture avec un fer à repasser. En général je repasse une zone pendant 2mn à une température laine. Faites bien attention à fixer toutes les zones et à ne pas brûler votre tissus.

Enjoy! Don't forget to send me your pictures!
Have you done something special to celebrate the Spring?
Bonne chance et n'oubliez pas de m'envoyer vos photos !
Avez-vous fait quelque chose de particulier pour célébrer le printemps ?

Telling a story

I love to tell stories to my kids, but it is more difficult to tell a story on this blog or in my Etsy shop in a language that is not my mother tongue. For some reason I always have the feeling that my brain is so much less creative when I start to think in another language than French.

So let's make a try! :) This morning I published a new item in my Etsy shop. I prepared the listing yesterday, and decided to change it after I read Nicolas' post on The AGteam blog. He is so right! Stories are so fun to read and will give an item a life and a soul!
The item is a little bandana bib made with an organic fabric that I absolutely had to use. In general I try to avoid anything related to movies, comics or books. But this fabric is a special one, it represents Truffula trees from the Dr Seuss' Lorax book. 

Truffula Tree Bib in Red

This book tells the story of a man, the "Once-ler" who brings a tree species to extinction and destroys a beautiful area while making himself go from the heights of success to solitude and sadness. It is an old book but it is beautifully written and drawn, and unfortunately more to the point than ever. We read it very often to our kids and it has become one of their favorite. Hopefully they will be some day belong to those who will care for the Earth. ;)

And if you want to read another story, please pay a visit to Viktoria's blog.