Alexosaurus, again

When Alex was smaller, Karol-Ann made him an Alexosaurus shirt. It's too small for him now, and although she's made him a new one, which he loves, he still loves the old one, so I decided to turn it into a picture. I did consider a pillow, but there's tons of stuff on his bed already, so I thought a picture would work better. Karol-Ann had actually done a couple of canvases for her boys from old shirts, but I didn't have a canvas (or a staple gun) - what I did have was a box of framed pictures in the loft, which are no longer on the walls for one reason or another. I was sure that one of them would be a decent size to suit this shirt. And I was right.

Here's the shirt, which I not only cleverly saved to "do something with later", but which I managed to find in my sewing room after cleverly saving it... The one thing I worried about was the brown sleeves - whether I'd be able to square up the dinosaur and name without having to cut into the brown - if I did, I was considering adding a fabric frame all around to camoflage that, but as it happened, that wasn't necessary.

First I cut the shirt up the side seams and ironed it to some fairly stiff interfacing. I then got the board backing out of the picture frame and put a line of heavy-duty double sided tape along each side. Having taking the measure of the board backing, I trimmed the shirt to the right size (much easier to hold it still with the interfacing already fused on) and stuck it to the board of the picture frame with the double sided tape (this is also the method I use to secure my cross-stitches in their frames, except I usually position and stick them first, then trim the canvas away).

And here it is, hanging on his wall - he's graciously modelling the new shirt as well - and he's very pleased to have his old Alexosaurus back, too!