Gobble, Gobble: Turkey Shirt Tutorial

Since we have so many new readers, I'm re-posting some of my favorite fall tutorials from last year.  The Turkey Shirt was one of the most popular tutorials of 2010 and many of you have submitted great versions of your own via The Cottage Home Flickr Group.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I wanted to make some shirts for my girls to celebrate one of my favorite holidays of the year.  I love the fun and colorful nature of this turkey shirt.  This is a wonderful way to use up those small scraps of fabric that you have lying around.

For this tutorial I have included a template for you to use for the turkey body and the feathers.


Gather your supplies.  Print out the turkey template and cut out the body and feather.


Take out one sheet of fusible interfacing.  You can use whatever type of fusible interfacing that you prefer.  I don't really have a preference, I tend to flip-flop between different brands.


Peel off one side of the paper on the fusible interfacing.  Place your fabric scraps on top of the side without the paper.  Fabric should be right-side up.  Press fabric to the interfacing.  I like to press on both sides - fabric and paper.  Make sure your iron doesn't touch any of the exposed parts of the interfacing (that could get a little sticky)!


Trace the feathers onto the paper side of the interfacing.  Trace about two feathers per scrap of fabric.  Cut out feathers.


Apply interfacing to the fabric you are using for the body of the turkey.  I chose to use a linen/cotton fabric for the body to add a little texture.  Use whatever fabric you like (cotton, linen, felt, fleece, minky, chenille).  Trace the turkey body from the turkey template.  Cut out turkey body.


Peel the paper backing off all of the feathers.  Start laying out your feathers.  This is kind of trial and error until it looks the way you want it to and is somewhat centered.  I started from the outside and worked inward, though you could do the opposite if you prefer.  I used two feathers out of each fabric scrap except for the very middle feather.  That was a total of 11 feathers (six different fabric prints).


Once you have the feathers laid out the way you want them.  Peel the paper backing off of the turkey body and place in the middle.  Press the feathers and the body with a very hot iron to fuse the turkey to your shirt or onesie.


Once the turkey is fused to the shirt, stitch around the exterior of the feathers and the body.  Normally I would prefer a zig-zag stitch, but I thought a little fraying might be nice since this is a bird - so I used a straight stitch.  If you look closely in the picture above, you will see that I stitched around three-quarter of each feather and stopped when one feather overlapped with the other.  I also stitched around the entire exterior of the body.



I added two eyes, a nose, and two little feet with some brown embroidery floss.  You can do your own thing with this part of the shirt - make it as simple or elaborate as you choose!  You could even cut these parts out of fabric and applique them on.  I love little embroidered touches, so that's why I opted for the embroidery floss.  Either way will look adorable!