DIY American Flag tee for toddlers

I've been searching for a cute American flag themed t-shirt for Riggs for I don't know how long. I wanted him to have something patriotic to wear to BBQ's and for pictures. There are lots of flag/patriotic shirts out there, but I didn't want something with words, slogans, brands, ect so basically I couldn't find anything. I sort of gave up and let it drop.

Then I was reading a few of my feed on bloglovin' this weekend, and I saw this DIY 4th of July shirt on Amy's blog, keepin' up with the Smith's. Why hadn't I thought of doing it myself before?! I went straight out and got some supplies for making a few shirt for Riggs - fabric paint and white tees. I wanted a white tank but I couldn't find any in his size and then I found these little Gerber tees on sale so I just grabbed them. During Riggs' naptime, I pulled everything out and got busy DIY-ing.

SUPPLIES:

blue & red fabric paint

 t-shirt or tank

paintbrush (I used paper towel bc I wanted a more 'spongy' look)

painters tape

thick scrap paper

#1

place thick scrap paper into the body of the shirt to keep paint from bleeding through onto the back of the shirt.

#2

tape a rectangle for blue portion of the flag, and fill in with paint. Pull tape off carefully but quickly to ensure clean, straight lines.

#3

Tape the lines for the red stripes. I did three red stripes under the blue portion and three long red stripes for the body of the 'flag'. Fill in with paint and peel off the tape:

[see why you need the scrap paper?]

#4

Admire you DIY handiwork and then set somewhere safe to allow the paint to dry completely for 24 hours before washing or wearing.

I also made one more with a different design, which I think turned out cute too. I'm not a very artistic person but I still love to do creative things, so it was really fun to work on this little project.

They look adorable on him and I can't wait to see him waving a little flag in his 4th of July shirt this weekend!