Canada Day Shirt Tutorial

We had a Red and White Spirit Day at school this week and while looking for something to wear, I remembered this tunic I made. I made it last year for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. I don't sew many projects for holidays, but I get really into the winter Olympics, printing schedules for my classroom, streaming different events on multiple devices, following the Canadian athletes on social media, even medal counts up on bulletin boards. There may even have been a cape involved. This tunic also made an appearance at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Montreal this year, which was awesome, by the way. As Canada Day is coming up I thought I'd share it, as it can be adapted into a quick and easy project.

I sewed the tunic out of red jersey knit fabric, using a tunic I had as a rough template. It turned out fairly well. For the leaves, I printed off a few maple leaves in different sizes and traced them onto some Steam-a-Seam. I fused it to some white knit fabric and arranged my maple leaves along one side of the tunic, starting with the biggest leaf, near the bottom. I placed the other two above at different angles, moving closer to the centre of the shirt. I fused them and stitched them using a zigzag stitch. You could use any stretch stitch, allowing your shirt to stretch when you put it on.

Though I made the tunic itself, you could easily add the leaves to any plain red t-shirt or top. All you would need is Steam-a-Seam or another fusible web, white knit fabric and white thread. I would recommend pre-washing the shirt and fabric in case they shrink in the wash.

You could also use fabric paint to make the maple leaf design, by tracing the leaves onto freezer paper, cutting them out, ironing the freezer paper onto the shirt and using it as a stencil to paint the leaves on with fabric paint. With a $4 t-shirt from Micheal's Arts & Crafts store, it's an easy and inexpensive project.

Thankfully, this wasn't Canada Day, but January. It was a little chilly with bare arms and snow falling!

Do you sew clothes or quilts or decor for holidays?
If you make your own Canada Day top, please share!