This is one of my favorite boy shirts to date! I hope I continue on this trend so every project I make is always better than the last. I found the material for this shirt at a “local” fabric store. Quotes on the local because it’s really 2 hours away, but I seem to go there quite often regardless. I had to buy it because the blue was so pretty and the fabric was sooooo light and super soft. Both my kids have a thing for soft. Rand always asks me is it’s going to be soft on the inside too. This definitely fit the bill.
I have to admit, this post is making me cry. Just 2 years ago, my sweet boy was an even sweeter toddler and so cute and little…. The shirt on the left was his first Rand-A-Saur shirt and also the inspiration for his second Rand-A-Saur shirt. He’s of course grown out of both so I had to make him a third! It’s funny, the nickname Rand-A-Saur actually comes from my sister who stayed with us for a summer after she graduated before Rand turned 1. When she would feed him, she would always sing, “more, more, more, more, never feed a Rand-A-Saur, MOOOOOORE!” Apparently it’s an actual song. It stuck though. He’s been my Rand-A-Saur ever since.
I wanted to use the same applique that I used in the second shirt, but it was lost on my old computer. Luckily, I was able to find it again online after searching for a day. The original idea was to just re-make his second shirt in different colors. My original plans never quite work out though. I cut out the dinosaur head and decided I needed a background to go under it. After searching and searching for something that I could use, I found a sweet picture but wasn’t able to turn it into a stencil because the resolution was so small. I ended up making my own stencil using the same graphic that I used for the sparks on his construction shirt. I just put 3 or 4 together, rotated them, cropped them into a circle and voila!
Here is a little bit of my process. I used my Cricut to cut out this stencil on freezer paper. This one took about 30 minutes to cut because it was so intricate. Too bad I forgot to make sure my circle was a perfect circle instead of an oval and had to re-cut it…. I really thought about just using my slightly wonky circle… no one would notice right? Well, I’m glad I fixed it because I think the perfect circle really stands out on the finished product. I would have regretted using an inferior stencil.
So I ironed on the stencil and painted it. The first color turned out to be a little too blue-green. I’m not super awesome at mixing colors. I ended up painting over it and fading the light gray to dark gray. When it was done I thought it looked a little spacey… It kind of reminded me of the Death Star. What do you think? Then I regretted my color choice because I didn’t think the brown dinosaur would look that great over the gray. Husband to the rescue again! He convinced me to just sew it on before I went and cut out another applique in white. He was right. It looks great! I shouldn’t second guess myself so much. Side note: Gray/Grey?? Which one is correct? I seem to use them interchangeably.
What a silly face. I thought about adding “Rand-A-Saur” somehow to the bottom of the shirt. I decided it looked great the way it was and left it off. Now it looks too grown-up… that’s why this post is making me cry. Kids grow up way too fast. I don’t even remember Rand when he was a baby or toddler. Is that why people have more than one child? To keep the adventure of all ages in the house? Every age is just as fun as the last. I’m excited to see where this kid goes in life.
I never do his hair. He was so funny about it. Every time I brushed by him or wanted him to do something, he worried about whether his hair was still ok. He is quite the perfectionist in so many ways.
I’m now caught up on all the projects I’ve been doing this last year. I’m excited to share my new projects with you. I just finished my jumper so the tutorial is coming soon! It’s probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.