Prep at the Beach: America

It's tax free weekend, so I had no choice but to go shopping. I got a few things, but my favorite purchase (well my dad bought them for me) were a new pair of Sperry Top Siders. I have a classic pair of brown boat shoes from 8th grade, but they are pretty worn out and need replacing.

These are the adorable boat shoes I got! I have been loving leopard print lately, and these are perfect. I decided to get the brown ones instead of the black because I felt like they would go with more things.

After looking around the store I wanted to just buy everything. Here are a few of my favorite things I saw.

Love the floral print on these. They could add a pop of color to almost any neutral outfit.

Seriously, I love seersucker. Who doesn't?

UNCW colored loafers!

'Merica!

Pink and green is the best color combination ever created!!

I'm a tad early with my crafting post this week. Oh well!

I am a huge fan of the 4th of July, so naturally I must dress up for it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good tee to wear over my American flag bikini, so I decided it was necessary to make one. This is a super easy and cheap tutorial. It uses a technique of appliqué, but not really.

You will need:

A plain solid color t-shirt (Patriotic colors are a must! Red, White, or Blue)

Double Sided Fusible Interfacing

Scrap Patriotic Fabric

Either a drawing or a stencil of a desired shape for the fabric (I chose a star)

Thread that corresponds with the decorative fabric, but it doesn't need to match

Paper scissors

Sewing Shears

Iron & Ironing Board

Sewing machine or hand sewing needle if you do not have a machine

Step 1: Cut out the stencil of the shape you have chosen

Step 2: Cut out a square of interfacing that is big enough to fit your shape

Step 3: Place the square of interfacing in the corner of the wrong side of the fabric

Step 4: Using the iron adhere the interfacing to the fabric by pressing the interfacing onto the fabric. Make sure the you have the paper side of the interfacing up and not the sticky side.

Step 5: Trace the stencil to the interfacing.

Step 6: Cut out the shape from the fabric

Step 7: Peel off the paper of the interfacing

Step 8: Place the shape onto the shirt wherever you would like it. I chose to put right where my left hip would be.

Step 9: Iron the shape onto the shirt the same way you did in step 4.

You can be done here if you don't want to add the last step. The shape is secured onto the shirt; the next step is more of a decoration.

Step 10: Straight stitch all around the edge of the shape. Go slowly and do your best to keep it straight. Also, make sure you aren't sewing the front of your shirt to the back or your shirt because I totally did that when I first started.