Incidentally, some of the other Room Moms directed me to Pinterest to obtain a fabulous teacher survey created by Life Sweet Life, which every Room Mom needs. It's a cute little survey that asks for the teachers’ favorites, making gift giving ultra easy. Plus, I shared it with the families in the classroom in case anyone was looking to be teacher's pet. I wanted to share it with you and you can download it here.
Going back to Busy's bag, I basically covered the Trader Joe's logo with fabric and made a design on top of that. I used felt for the design and hand sketched a tree I then used for a stencil. I used iron-on adhesive to adhere the felt pieces to the fabric. I attached the fabric to the bag using tacky glue.
But now I needed to add Busy's moniker to the bag. I did this by making custom letter appliqués. Using Microsoft Word you can create your own stencil. It is very easy and only a few steps.
Step 1 - Choose your font. You will want to use block letters for the best result. When choosing a font, think about what it would be like to cut out. If you are looking at a font that uses a thin line anywhere in the letter, it won't work. Some great block letter fonts available in word are:
Arial Black
Britanic Bold
Franklin Gothic Heavy
Gills Sans Ultra Bold
Playbill
Rockwell Extra Bold
For this project I used Arial Black, which is my go to font. You could also download a font. My favorite place to get fonts is dafont.com.
Step 2 - Choose your size. Make sure it's big enough to get your scissors around. To get a good idea of size, print a test piece and hold it up to the item you will be attaching the letters to.
Step 3 - Highlight your text and select the font dropdown menu. It's located at the top menu bar directly to the right of the word "font" found in the blue bar. It is a little box with an arrow pointing down to the right. Click that.
Step 4 - Once the font box opens, select "outline" located in the center under "effects."
Step 5 - Print. I like to print stencils onto cardstock as it's much easier to trace. Paper tends to bunch and move.
Step 6 - Cut out letters.
Now you have your stencils ready to go. Note, there is no need to cut out more than one of a particular letter. You can just reuse the stencil.
Once you have your stencils, you can prep your material or felt. Follow the directions on your iron-on adhesive to attach one side to your material or felt. If you are using material, it is best to iron it first so that a crease doesn't end up making a fold in your fabric.
I used Heat n Bond for this project and it worked great, although I did have to apply extra heat time. This is because I was using felt, which is thick and harder for the heat to pass through. I used "lite" and probably would have got better results from something heavier; however, it did work and I had it on hand.
Now you should have a paper backing on your material that you can trace your stencils onto. Make sure you turn your letters upside down. If you trace them right side up, when you cut them out and turn them over, they will be upside down.
Once you cut out your letters, you can place them where you want them and follow the directions of the iron-on adhesive to attach them. Something to note is that if you create felt letters you MUST use a cloth between the felt and the iron.
Once your letters have cooled, they will be permanently attached. Depending on the project and the look I am going for, sometimes I run the sewing machine over the edges with a zigzag stitch. This is particularly good for clothing items that will be washed. It helps to keep the edge of the material from raveling, and as time goes on, the adhesive could wear, and it will keep the letters right where they are supposed to be.
Now you have letter appliqués to add to your stash!
My Stash of Materials:
Felt Pieces or Fabric
Iron - On Adhesive
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