DIY: Maternity Baseball T-shirt

I was on Pinterest a while back and saw this cute t-shirt that I thought would be PERFECT for going to baseball games if I were ever pregnant.  Well lucky me, I'm pregnant and it's baseball season!

This was the inspiration, so you get an idea what I was going for:

Of course, there were no instructions on how to either purchase or make one with this link.  (Your favorite pins are always that way, right?)

So I had to figure it out myself!  But lucky for you, I took some notes along the way.  Here are the supplies that you need (depending on how much you want to get into this):

• T-shirt (one or two sizes bigger than you normally wear)
• Red fabric paint
• Fabric paint brush (though I just used a regular Rose Art paint brush because it's what I had)
• White thread
• Elastic (~24 inches or less)
• Air or water-soluble pencil (used for quilting, etc)

 I just used a plain white t-shirt from Michaels that I got on sale for $3.   I think I would have liked it better if I got a V-neck, but that's up to you.  First thing I did was take the sleeves in so they wouldn't be so big and baggy.  Turn your t-shirt inside out, and you can guesstimate where to put the pins for your arms. (Sorry, no scientific estimate here.  I tried it on inside out just to make sure I had it right.)  But it should look something like this when you're done.  Be sure to line up your hems so it doesn't look too wonky when you sew it.  You'll taper to the outside to just under where your bust line is.  Sew along the pins (Pulling them out before you run over them with your machine since they are facing the wrong direction and could very well ruin your machine and poke an eye out all in one!!) 

 

Once you've taken your sleeves in, it's time to mark your lines for your baseball threads.  You can either eyeball this, or do like I did and improvise. My trashcan lid was the perfect shape!  (I washed it first, don't worry.)  Make sure to test that your air/water-soluble pencil will come out of the fabric before drawing all over.

You'll draw a half circle starting just under where your bust line is (where you finished sewing for your sleeves) on each side with a few inches of space between the two half cirlces in the middle--Think baseball.  Sorry, it's hard to see, but that's kind of the point of the pencil.  It's blue pencil so you know what you're looking for.

Next, draw the dash marks perpendicular along the lines you just drew.  I used a ruler to space them an inch apart.

Place some cardboard between the two layers of your shirt, and grab your fabric paint.  I used Tulip soft metallic fabric paint in Christmas Red.

 

Then, paint over your lines that you drew.  Hopefully it comes out looking something like this.  Let it dry overnight before doing anything else.  The bottle of paint suggests washing before wearing.  I did this.

 

You can stop here, or keep going for the even more advanced shirt.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture before I did anything to make it even more of a challenge. In order to get a more fitted baseball, you can sew elastic using a zig-zag stitch along the inside of your t-shirt on both sides starting just below top baseball threads and finishing just above the baseball threads at the bottom.  The key is to stretch your elastic as you sew--the more you stretch it, the more ruched your shirt will be.

 

Here is what the final product may look like: