Remembering the Battle of Yavin

 

After making my fancy, impractical maxi dress, I had to do something totally different and casual, hence this geeky Star Wars tee. This kind of geeky tee with jeans is the bread and butter of my wardrobe; you know, for the times you don't even feel like cake. My other Star Wars wardrobe item definitely falls into the frosting category, so this tee is for the times I want to just run over to Trader Joe's to grab milk (although I've grabbed milk in the dress, too) while still declaring that I'm a geek at heart.

In my knit stashbusting quest, I rediscovered a brand new size medium men's t-shirt in organic cotton that I had thrifted a while ago. I cut it apart at the seams and used my Not-A-Renfrew pattern to cut out a standard scoop-neck tee, but decided it needed a point of interest. Inspired by this awesome post, I decided to add my own Battle of Yavin remembrance to the shoulder, but with a TeeJuice marker instead of paint. My previous experiments with fabric paint yielded a somewhat stiff, sort of crusty final product, and I wanted to keep the organic cotton feeling buttery soft. The marker also has a very fine point, which meant better control for drawing the spiky things coming out of the X-wing. To draw the actual ships, I employed the most overpriced light box ever:

Yes, that's an iPad on its brightest setting underneath the fabric. I just googled "x wing and tie fighter silhouettes" to find the graphic.

Final design. Also, check out my awesome neck binding!

Isn't it incredible how well it mimics screenprinting?

I didn't actually color the whole thing in on top of the iPad, as I was afraid of the ink bleeding through onto the screen. I just put tiny dots at all the crucial parts of the outline, then replaced the iPad with a piece of cardboard and finished coloring. To add to the feeling of iiinnnn spaaaaace, I made a little meteor field with lots of dots. And on the back piece, I free-handed the Rebel Alliance symbol in red, then cleaned up the edges with a black outline.

After I set the designs with a hot iron, I sewed up the shirt like normal and went to Trader Joe's and got milk. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to notice my awesome BoY graphics. Boooo. Don't you hate it when you make something you think is totally awesome, but nobody else seems to think it's worth commenting on? I know, I know, I just want attention.

Pouty face because no one noticed how awesome I am. Kidding, of course.

Short Summary, since I've already made up this pattern too many times for it to be worth rehashing again: $5 men's tee cut down and resewn, 2 hours of work for a brand new, unique, geek girl tee. Oh man, the possibilities here are endless now that I've discovered how easy it is to 1) make t-shirts, and 2) fake screenprinting. The limiting reagent here is the number of good-quality, larger shirts I can find at the thrift store.

This is what was going on right next to me while my husband snapped pictures. Yup, Walnut's eating a snack.