Felt Turkey Shirt

I have so many posts to catch up on! I've been doing projects faster than I can write about them. The hubs is out of the country this week and I am staying with family so I have had a lot of time to do stuff. Yesterday I got to go yard sailing, sew two projects (on the sewing machine!!) and start another project. It was a good Saturday. Before Thanksgiving gets here I want to show you how I made my daughter's outfit. I came across this darling outfit months ago and decided I really wanted to copy the essence of it.

You can buy this outfit in the Etsy Shop My Tutu Boutique for $57 plus shipping. My version (Giant flower headband plus Turkey Onesie) will cost you less than $5 including the price of the onesie. However, the way I make it, you can remove it once the holiday is over and keep using the shirt and save the decoration for next year!

To start, I drew up my pattern. I needed two circles about 3 inches across and 1 1/2 inches across and I grabbed the closest thing at hand, a fruit snack cup! Worked like a charm!

From there I just did my best to copy the inspiration picture. I folded my paper in half so that my pattern would be symmetrical. As you can see I went through a few phases before I got the shape just right. I also label everything as soon as I have a finished drawing it so that I don't get it mixed up when I cut it out.

After everything was drawn I cut it out still folded. I would recommend cutting the feathers out first. I cut the body out first and it made keeping the two feather halves together a lot harder. 

Next I chose my felt colors. I had a skirt already picked out that I wanted her to wear the shirt with (instead of a tutu), so I pulled that out to match. (If you want to make a tutu, they are very easy. I Can Dabble has a great no-sew option that I have made before that is made with ribbon for the waist.) I ended up using dark brown for the body of my turkey and dark green, pink, orange, and yellow for the feathers. I also used tan (not pictured) as a base which will be explained further down.

For the eyes and beak I pulled out my scraps. Every time I have a small piece that I think I can still use I stick it in a Ziplock for just such an occasion.

Next I cut out my pieces.

To make the appliqué I hot glued the pieces to a sheet of tan felt, being sure to leave about a quarter of an inch around the edges. This is so that I my piece won't fall apart and so that I don't have to stitch through hot glue.

Once it was glued, I trimmed all the way around, leaving that 1/4 inch of the tan felt exposed. Then I hand-stitched it to the onesie using some yellow thread. The stitches do not need to be small unless you plan to leave the turkey attached. I plan to take it off after she wears it on Thanksgiving so I can attach it to a new shirt next year. This shirt would work for a boy too if you altered the colors from pink to red (or whatever color you like).

Can't wait to see my pretty girl in this on Thursday! Do you dress your kids up in special outfits for the holidays?