Anyway, each year for Ava's birthday I have made her a birthday shirt. Yep, it's cheesy, but it has made me happy, and she always looks cute. I know it won't last forever, so I'm doing it while it lasts. Now, Ava's birthday is next week, but her party is this Sunday. Being born on Labor Day weekend requires us to have parties early or late, as everyone always has other plans on that specific weekend. So we planned the party for this weekend and got to working on the details.
Being almost 9 months pregnant, I knew I didn't want to have to deal with everything myself, so we outsourced it to a fun joint down the road which the kids love. And since we don't really have the option of having a theme for the party, we have used all other opportunities for a theme. The cake, invites, thank yous, and of course the birthday t-shirt. We talked about it early on and Ava told me exactly what she wanted. This year's "theme" is Rio, like the animated movie. Ava has been on a Rio kick for some time now, and although it took a little creativity, everything was going as planned.
I got the party booked, made and sent out invitations, designed the cake and ordered it, and all that was left was the t-shirt. I got all the pictures and things I needed for it, bought transfers and got to work. Ava added a few of her touches (a couple extra pictures, she couldn't just pick one!), and it was ready to go. That was until this morning when she decided she didn't want a t-shirt but instead a tank top. No problem! I'd cut off the sleeves, and hem them up so she would have a tank top. I even had the idea of putting a little bit of lace around the shoulder area to give it more of a girly detail. Ava's still not a girly girl, but I didn't want her shirt looking too much like a cut off.
Here are the before pictures. We were going to add some jewels and other things that Ava wanted, but I wanted that to be the last step. These pictures were intended to be used as a DIY later on.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as I had planned. When I was hemming the sleeves, my iron got too close to the picture on the front of the shirt and it began to adhere to the back of the shirt (it was inside out so one couldn't see the stitching and pinked edges.) I of course didn't realize this until after it was done. So when I went to pull it apart, some of the blue from the front ended up on the back. Crap! Well, it wasn't horrible. A little splotchy on the front, far from the perfect shirt I had in mind, but I figured if I left Ava's hair down, it would cover up the blue that has transferred to the back. I was so mad at myself for not thinking that one through.
See the faded front corner?
Not horrific... but check out the back:
I put the shirt on Ava, pinned on the lace and then set it aside to eat lunch. Meanwhile I emailed my Mom and told her what happened, as she knew I was making a shirt. She called with an idea. Maybe if I was able to iron the extra blue onto a towel, it would come off the shirt. It was worth a try. (This is by no means my Mother's fault, and I do not blame her in any way, shape, or form.) I grabbed a towel, heated my iron and went to work. Only in my haste did I not pay attention and ended up smudging the color on the large #5 that was on the back of the shirt. Short of taking a blue sharpie and trying to color the 5, and then trying to remove the excess that had smeared, the shirt was ruined. (See the angled part of the 5 in the above picture... yeah, it's not there anymore, it's smeared to the left.)
Man, was I mad. It was my fault. I hadn't thought it through enough, even though I had thought it through several times. There would be no birthday shirt this year. I failed. Crafter FAIL! This is not the first time I've screwed something up, but it just made me so mad. And I'm guessing it's because my little girl is growing up and she isn't going to want my handmade shirts much longer... or maybe it was just the fact that it didn't go the way I wanted it to. Either way, there is no shirt this year. I took the lace off the sleeves and handed Ava the shirt, apologized for messing the shirt up, but told Ava she could wear whatever she wanted on Sunday. Thankfully she was okay with that. And she has a new play shirt that she can get dirty, and it has her current favorite characters on it.
Oh well... things happen. I'm still bummed about it, but there is nothing I can do. I'll instead put my energy into her Halloween costume... yep, I've already started that. This girl can't ask to be something they sell in a store! Do you remember last year's zebra? Yeah, so I'm starting this one early. Hopefully I won't mess it up!
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