The Sweatshop of Love Blog

About a month ago now I made a trip to my local Minneapolis Michael’s and bought a lot of crafty supplies for a couple projects I wanted to tackle.

My needlepoint project won out, and then I fell back into knitting like a crazy person.

But before I left Minneapolis last week I took a t-shirt painting break, because it’s almost t-shirt wearing weather, and I didn’t want to bring all my painting supplies back to Chicago with me.

My girl Jeanna sent me a link to these amazing Michigan themed tshirts a while ago, and we both picked our favorites. Mine was absolutely this ‘Ernie is my Tiger’ shirt that I will use this season to both cheer on my Detroit Tigers AND not get yelled at at the same time! Ernie Harwell was the long time and beloved Tigers announcer who passed away last year. I take in most of my Tigers games as a supporter of the visiting team (in Chicago and Minneapolis), but who is going to yell at me with a dead guy on my shirt? I should have thought of this years ago.

I’ve also always wanted one of these Great Lakes t-shirts, which I knew was going to be a challenge because you are painting negative space and abstract shapes to boot. And, as you can see, Lake Michigan is too long, making West Michigan too big, making Eastern Michigan too big, and Michigan too long in general, which made Lake Erie too big, and you don’t realize that Lake Ontario looks like a big dick until you are painting it on a t-shirt.

But, whatevs. Handmade, right?!

Jeanna’s favorite shirt was the Chet Lemon tshirt, so I had to make it for her.

Chet Lemon, if you were wondering, was a Tiger in the 80s and instrumental to the Tiger’s World Series winning team in 1984. The t-shirt is brilliant because only the most awesome people ever (hardcore baseball/Tigers fans) get it, and these kinds of shirts are invaluable to fans not living in their team’s state, like Jeanna and I. Though, when PT, a hardcore baseball fan, saw it he didn’t get it. And even when I said, ‘CHET LEMON!’ he was like, I don’t know who that is.

But whatever. I’d like to say that someday I’ll marry a Tigers fan so this isn’t a problem anymore, but it’s really hard to find one under the age of 40.

I followed the exact same t-shirt painting process I used when I made personalized onesies last summer, so if you are interested in painting t-shirts I did a full how-to over there.

And now I’m ready for t-shirt weather! And baseball! So come on already!

OOHHhhhhh PIECE OF SHIT WEEKEND! Why?! WHY?!

It comes every year, and every year I try to prepare for it but I know. I KNOW! It will suck, and my heart will be empty, and there will be no light or joy in the world on THIS WEEKEND, no matter what I do.

When baseball season ends you fill the void with football. The seasons overlap, so while you don’t have a football game every day like you have with baseball, you have fantasy football to plan, so it’s ok.

But when football ends YOU HAVE NOTHING. You have cold, cold winter and no football to be excited about. And while, yes, I have taken more of an interest in basketball this year than I have in previous years, it’s no replacement.

Spring training starts in 17 days. It’s a month till March Madness.

And so, the weekend between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl is the worst weekend of the year. The first weekend you have nothing.

Nothing except Lord of the Rings Extended Versions! I save these for this weekend. That is a solid 10 hours of quality entertainment, much like a day with 3 football games.

And Horatio Hornblower as a back up! There are 8 parts to this miniseries and that has bound to keep my mind off my broken, empty heart.

I’ve also got craft projects!

I finally made it the nearly 6 miles to Michael’s yesterday to pick up a few things for projects I’ve been wanting to tackle. My friend Miss Jeanna pointed me in this direction a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to get them out of my mind, so tshirts need to happen!

And y’all know my love/hate relationship with needlepoint, but I got the cutest idea for some food needlepoint art for my kitchen and just need to make it happen. And I haven’t needlepointed in 8 months so I can’t remember how much I hate it.

I’ve also got about an inch left to knit on my Beatnik to get to this week’s goal of getting to the sleeve separation.

How sweet is this sweater looking so far?!

So, worst weekend of the year, I’m ready for you with all I’ve got: Crafts, LOTR, and Horatio Hornblower.

Yes, that is all I’ve got to fight you with. Nerdery.

The Dykhuizen family is counting down the days till Baby Nolan arrives. He will be the first of the next generation for our family, so he is bound to get a lot of shit.

So far Nolan has racked up a DinoSweater, Baby Bobbie Bear, Sheldon the Turtle, and a Socktopus, all before he is even born.

What else does he need? Onesies! But you know me. I can’t just give the kid some onesies. And you know I’m not going to buy fancy onesies I know are just going to be puked on a million times.

Solution? Buy cheap-o onesies ($8.99 for a pack of 5 at Target) and snazz them up.

How To Make Personalized Onesies

1. Get some fabric paint in basic colors. They are between 45 and 99 cents a tube and can be found at any craft store. Make sure you don’t buy the puffy kind! It’s really ugly.

2. Cut a piece of cardboard to slide inside the onesie. You want it to be snug so it’s holds the fabric taunt to make an easy painting surface.

3. Find an image to copy! Do a google image search for anything. I like searching ‘cartoon’ or ‘coloring book’ along with the object I’m looking for so I get a clean, easy image.

Dinosaurs are fun and a great way to use silly colors. You can see I searched ‘dinosaur coloring page’ to find this little guy.

4. Print the image and trace it onto your onesie, or just eyeball it.

My printer is really annoying to hook up, so I just eyeball it. I like to start in the center of the image and built it out from there.

5. Start painting with your main color. If you are right handed, start at the top left and work your way down diagonally.

This way you won’t be laying your hand in paint! If you are left handed, start in the top right corner.

6. Let the paint dry a little before adding any additional colors.

7. Let the paint dry to the touch before adding any while or outlines. White paint blends everything and is really hard to use! Your outline colors will look a lot better on dry paint as well.

8. Let the onesie dry for 24 hours before giving it away or packing it up!

Some fabric paint instructs you to iron it once dry, so be sure to read the bottle.

9. Make four more onesies!

Nolan will be a Tigers fan. I resisted the urge to paint ‘Yankees Suck’.

My original design was a buckeye with an X through it.

Subtle Lions fan. Like the rest of us.

Too much?

10. Add up your savings! Dinosaur Onesie = $15.99. UofM Onesie = $17.99. Tigers Onesie = $9 ($17.99 for 2). Lion Onesie = $15. I Heart Aunt Allyson Onesie = $12.

Bought Onesies = $69.98.

My Onesies = $8.99 (onesies) + $5 (paint) = $13.99

Total Savings = $55.99! Holla!

So get out there and make some adorable, personalized onesies! I can’t wait to see Baby Nolan rocking these cute outfits.