Dragon Applique T-shirt ~ A Boden Knock Off

My son is not a happy camper right now.  His birthday happens to land on His First Day Of School, as in, he's-going-to-kindergarten-at-the-big-school-first-day-of-school.  It's a big deal for him and kind of over whelming at the same time.  Two big mile stones in his life wrapped up in one day...so, yeah, he's not happy.  

So in order to make His day super special, I made him a shirt to wear for His birthday on His first day of school.

My inspiration was this shirt from Boden.

First thing I did was pick-off the pocket from the $1 shirt I bought on clearance.  

I used freezer paper to make a pattern. Looking at the picture in the catalog, I drew my version of the dragon on freezer paper (not on the shiny side).  Can you see all the semi erased lines?  I had a hard time drawing the feet but I finally drew feet that I was happy with.

Using the hand drawn dragon as a template, I placed another piece of freezer paper on top and copied the spikes, eyes, hands and teeth.

I cut out my pattern 

and ironed it (shiny side down) onto the t-shirt fabrics that I used.  These came from t-shirts that don't fit my kids anymore. See the grey fabric?  It's the picked-off pocket and it became part of the eyes. 

Then I ironed fusible web to the back of the t-shirt fabric.  So, basically, the top has the freezer paper ironed on and the back has fusible web ironed on.  Then, cut out the pattern on the freezer paper. Here is the dragon pieced together.  

Remove the freezer paper.  An easy way to do this is to use a pin and make a slit in the middle.  Just run your pin across the paper and peel the paper off.  (I did this for both the freezer paper and the fusible web.)

Now this step you can skip if you want but I did it because my son does not like interfacing on the inside of his shirts.  In order to add some sort of stability and make it easier to sew, I ironed on the dragon to a thin piece of white felt.  Here is the dragon    with the fusible web ready to be ironed onto the felt.

Once the dragon was securely ironed onto the felt, I ironed fusible web to the back of the felt. I cut the dragon again,  this time leaving a small trim. Ironed on the entire applique to the shirt 

and sewed ALL the edges. I think this was the hardest part for me.  There was a lot of stopping and pivoting the needle to get the spikes, hands and feet done.  

By the time I got to the eyes, I wasn't too worried about making perfect circles...

My son was happy with his new shirt and his bribe...you know, just to stand still for a good picture.

This is his response to, "Mijo, give me a big smile"...

Minus the sharp teeth, I think he was trying to imitate the dragon's smile...love it!

I am entering this knock-off into this challenge: