We have a tradition to have our two thirteen year old nieces stay with us a few weeks each summer.  It seems each summer our visits have a movie theme.  Last year it was Hot Rod and we made Hulkamania t-shirts and this Hot Rod halloween costume.
This summer the movie is Gentlemen Broncos.

Each niece designed their t-shirt with an inside joke from the movie.  I made the shirts from a light grey knit I had in my stash.

So the first shirt was Aubree's.  She really wanted to have this character Lonnie on a shirt somehow.
 We took an image from the actual film, from the "bus scene".  It's really random, but has become one of our favorites.

WATCH BUS SCENE HERE

I finally decided how I could do this, and it combined freezer paper stenciling with fabric paint, and free motion sewing.
The hair, background of the face, and text were painted on with freezer paper stencils.
To sew the facial features on, I traced them on freezer paper and ironed it on top of the black background as a template.  Then I was able to sew the face on.

I'm assuming close to no one reading this has ever watched the film:

Gentlemen Broncos

I'm not recommending it, as I've only met 2 other people that like this movie.  My cousin, Staci and my brother in law Drew.  It was pulled from many theaters the same weekend it opened. 

Actually, I watched it for the first time in March of this year.  We got it from Netflix just to check it out, knowing it received awful reviews.  But we liked Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre from the same writer/ director, so we watched it.  I turned it off and made a comment about how dumb it was, not funny, and wishing I'd had those 2 hours of my life back.
I kind of hated it....
....but "oh my holy crap"

... I couldn't stop thinking about it.
It got more and more hilarious in the weeks following as my husband and I would remember different little details.

If you've seen it, I'm a little embarrassed to broadcast how much we like this film.  I would describe the humor as "10-year-old boy", meaning puke, poop, belching, etc.  So we have an immature sense of humor have shared it with our teenage nieces and nephews and have developed a little G.B. fan club. So we're making a few tee shirts for the kids while I have my two 13-year-old nieces visiting.

So this is the first tee shirt. 

It's the title of the main character's novel with a moon buggy sketch.

Here's the moon buggy from the movie, driven by a cyclops wearing a silk scarf, of course.

Obviously no one will be making a Yeast Lords shirt, but I loved the way the notebook paper applique turned out.
It's just white broadcloth with fusible interfacing on the back.  I sewed blue horizontal rows 1/4" apart with a long stitch length, then one vertical red row to imitate notebook paper.
I actually used my 3 hole punch to punch the holes in the side.  It cut about half the circle, and I used scissors to cut out the rest.
I thought it actually looked a lot like an actual notebook piece of paper on a t-shirt.

A while ago, I thought I'd try to do a better job about sharing more about myself on this blog, rather than just listing projects, but it really hasn't happened.

Mainly because I can't think of anything I would think you'd want to know.

So I'm opening up to answer any questions you may have, husband's job? where I grew up? and I feel willing to answer pretty much anything.

So if you have something you'd like to know about me, you can leave a comment or email it to:

runningscissor@gmail.com

To jump start it, I thought I'd share an awkward gem from my tween years.

Thanks!

The last few months of my pregnancy, I kept my eye on the classifieds looking for a small dresser for her.  Both kids are in the same room, so I wanted a smaller dresser to go in the closet.   But luckily a few purchases fell through, and we got this dresser for free from Rhett's brother.  I liked it so much, RJ's red dresser went in the closet and this shorter one gets to be in the room.

Rhett's older brother was cleaning out his garage, and was taking this dresser to the thrift store and I was able to snag it.  It was pretty crappy...and old.  Apparently his mother in law collected old stuff, and they'd had this dresser from her.  I don't know how old it is, but it had been stored outdoors at some point, all the drawer bottoms had warped and the top had water stains.  So it was pretty much a piece of junk. 

Dresser Refinish Breakdown

1. Reinforce Drawers

Pretty much every drawer needed reinforcing glue/ nails.  The dresser top also needed to be glued.

6. Polyurethane

I painted 2 coats of satin finish polyurethane to seal the protect the dresser, and give it the shine on the wood.

7. Line Drawers

I had to put something in the drawers.  The original wood was clean now, but just looked nasty so I cut contact paper for the bottoms.

It has RJ's things on top:

the lamp I painted, photo of his hands on my dad's, photo with his Dad when he was a baby, his initial block, and a vintage copy of My Father's Dragon my mom gave us.

So this hat was created because I needed a baby sun hat for our little girl.  She has huge cheeks and the swim hat I'd been using kept sliding off her head, and its brim didn't quite cover the chubba cheeks.

So I designed this hat with a tighter fitting crown and elastic chin strap so it won't fall off.

Rather than cutting the brim in a circle, you can just use scraps in strips (way less fabric useage) and the ruffle effect helps it stand out from the head to protect their face from the sun.

I have to mention my son here.  I made the pattern 3 sizes, and asked him to wear the large red hat for a few pictures.  I handed it to him, and he looked at me and said: "Mom....I don't like this hat."  So I realize I put my son in a frilly girl's hat, but I thought it would be worth it so you could see it on a bigger noggin.

Plus it will be valuable ammunition when he's 18.