A few months ago, my friend Mikki asked for my help. She recently married into a "Bama Family" and would be attending her first home game in October. Also attending would be their first baby, scheduled to arrive this spring. And because of her "condition," she was having trouble finding suitable Bama fan wear. Sure, the university store was generous enough to carry two or three tops in maternity sizes, but like most maternity gear, they were sadly lacking in style. Mikki wanted to know if I could turn one of her favorite maternity t-shirts into something suitable for the occasion.

I ended up buying about a yard of houndstooth fabric and using it to spell out "ROLL TIDE" on the front of the tee in a collegiate font. I did the applique stitching around the letters in red, and added a spattering of crimson iron-on jewels inside the letters. There was enough of the houndstooth left over to make a matching scarf, using the houndstooth and some black jersey knit I had in my stash. She was very happy with the end result.

Of course, no project ever goes that smoothly--after I cut the letters out and positioned them on the shirt, it occurred to me they looked awfully...small. I knew Mikki wouldn't want anyone focussing on her chest area trying to read the tiny print on her shirt. After sending her a photo, she agreed, and I re-cut the letters in a substantially larger size. 

So now I had "ROLL TIDE" in tiny houndstooth letters, all ready to be put on...what?

Duh. What else???

As it turns out, I had a small piece of red 2" pre-cut chiffon from the Things 1 and 2 Pettiskirts I made for a customer in October--a tiny scrap, but enough to create three lovely ruffles across the business end of the onesie.

Rather than do a tight zigzag applique stitch, I used a short single stitch around the inside of the letters--this will allow them to fray just a bit around the edges, giving it that "I either got this at Abercrombie or out of a dumpster and you'll never know" look that's so fashionable right now.

I'm just visualizing this with a tiny black cardigan and black (or houndstooth!) baby legwarmers at a warm, sunlit, mid-fall game. *Sigh*...too bad I couldn't have had at least ONE girl to ruffle up!

I hope she likes it, and that Li'l Missy wears it well--I'm sure she'll look adorable.