Step 4: Embroider the word that best signifies your friendship     Step 5: Decorate the T-shirt with buttons and beads for a super creative finish.     Your new stylish look   What girls have to say about style… "My style matches my personality—funky, weird, vintage, and all-out crazy. I like being a trend-setter, not a follower. If I see something I like, I take it and make it my own." --Kayla "I'm a girl who loves all colors! I am a person who never matches because I wear different colors all the time. I wear seasonal things all year long. If I wear bright colors I seem to be rather happy." --Annalisa "My style is like a fruit salad—I wear a mix of everything from preppy to punk to skater to ghetto. I don't really care what other people think about how I dress, I do it for me." --Heather "I am very special. I like to do sports such as softball, basketball, and go out dancing with my friends. My clothing style changes a lot from punk rocker to preppy." --Sandra

D.I.Y.
Wearable Art for Fashion Conscious Girls!

By Clare Tattersall, staff writer

Spring is in the air. The season of hibernation is over, the birds are singing, and you are feeling just great about yourself, your life, your friends, and your own personal direction. You open up your closet, ready to free your spirit, but…you feel that there just isn't much there that makes a statement about who you are.

Don't despair—there's no need to hit the mall and spend your savings. Just take a good look at what you have, then figure out the best way to express yourself—your true self.

Just for starters, here's an idea for a T-shirt that will show the world how you feel and get you thinking….

What You Need:

• A T-shirt
• Photo transfer paper
• Ink jet printer
• A piece of white/light colored fabric
• Scissors, pins, needle, embroidery thread
• Buttons, beads, and trimmings

Six Steps to Style Success:

1. Choose your favorite photos of your best friends and print onto photo transfer paper.
2. Lay the transfer paper facedown on the fabric and follow transfer instructions. Remember: when you iron the image onto the T-shirt it will be in reverse, so if you are using text, you will need to use a computer program to flip text horizontally.
3. Place the fabric on the T-shirt and use embroidery thread to attach the picture and outline the photo.
4. Embroider the word that best signifies your friendship (e.g. "forever," "fabulous," "2005")
5. Decorate the T-shirt with buttons and beads for a super creative finish.

Mix It Up

Now you've got the idea, you can do anything. You can download images of flowers, cars, sports teams, or family members and iron them on to have the most vibrant, stylish wardrobe in town. Experiment with designs. If you are making a flower design, use embroidery thread for the stems and leaves or use clear beads to represent dew drops. Remember, there are no rules—you are setting the style and providing the direction.

Coming up: Email us your creative ideas for upcoming issues and see your ideas in print!