Original Game Boy Clothing

So my brother and sister-in-law were expecting their second baby and asked if I could help them out with their first child because she's only 4 and not quite understanding everything going on. So out to the DC area to spend time with them when the new baby is born! Shortly before flying out to them, I found this awesome pin. I was not about to spend that kind of money on something that would cost me less then that to make myself! Heck, it would even give me something to do and post about while on "vacation"! I showed it to my brother and sister-in-law and they both loved it and loved the idea of me doing it. Seeing as the original post is for someone selling it on esty... there were no directions on how to do or pattern for the sizes things should be. I still will not provide the pattern only because this will then give you a little more freedom on what you end up putting it on :). 

You first start with getting your materials. I started looking at Wal-Mart and didn't really find everything I was looking for. You can still look here to see if you can find the colors you want but I'm not sure you will find them. I did find the gray, green, and glue at Michael's though. And it is the PERFECT green as it matches REALLY well to what the original game boy's looked like. I'm not too young not to remember. In fact, I got the hand-me-down game boy(s) and games from my older brother and sister. That is why it was just as awesome to me. I also remember them getting them.

I was sitting at home with my niece tonight waiting for the National Fireworks program to start on TV and decided that I would sit down and work on it. By the time that the actual fireworks started, I was nearly done and that was including the time of taking photos (some multiple times). So total, I don't think it should take more then 45 minutes to an hour to do. Most photos were taken against their carpet because I still needed to keep an eye on my niece but you should see most of everything. If not, please feel free to ask me questions and I'll be sure to help or take new pictures to post.

So materials! 1 piece each of grey, green, black, and red felt (easily under 30 cents each no matter where you go), fabric glue/sewing machine and transparent thread, onesies/shirts, tape measure/ruler, and of course scissors. You will of course have to start by buying/collecting all these items.

The next thing that you are going to want to do is measure the width between sleeves of the onesie or shirt. The shirt I am using is a Gerber 0- 3 months shirt. The measuring is as easy as it sounds... put the measuring tape or ruler down and get a good idea of the width. This one was about 6 and a half inches.

The next thing you are going to want to do is decided how much of the shirt you are going to want the screen to take up. I spaced out 3 inches first on the tape and placed it down and then decided that I could probably go to 3 and a half inces. After that I measured it out on the GREY piece of felt first. After measuring it out I cut it out and PLACED it on the shirt. DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING YET! It should look like this:

Next, you are going to want to decide how big you are going to want the pixel part of the screen. I took an inch off of the grey for this. So my GREEN piece was about 2 and a half inches. Again, I measured and cut it out. Placed it on top of the grey and still DID NOT GLUE it down. It should now look like this:

The next 3 steps will be the hardest. I believe this next one is what took me the longest to complete. It was the black four-way control button. I attempted this several times before I finally got it the way I wanted. The smarter way to do it did not occur to me until AFTER I was done with everything. Always happens right? We think of an easier way to do something after the fact? What I did was cut a small black square probably about an inch by inch piece like this:

Then I placed it on the shirt and drew on it with a white dry erase crayon that my brother and sister-in-law had from my niece and drew the shape on it. Then tried to cut it. Part of the problem I was having could have been how old the scissors I was using were so they were not the greatest at the ends like I needed but a few times I messed up. I got it just about right on one and parts of the cross buttons were a little too short. So I cut another square and placed the pretty good one on top and used that as a stencil to get the final product of:

The easier way to complete this step would have been to draw it out on a piece of paper, pin it to the felt, then cut. However, I was not that smart before starting like I said. So I struggled through. I then again placed it on the shirt and DID NOT GLUE IT. So that now my shirt looked like this:

After this it got easy again. I cut a small rectangle of red felt for the A and B buttons. I literally just cut small circles right now of it. I wasn't going to bother trying to draw these out. However, if you want to you can. Mine, however, I felt turned out really well. Here is the rectangle with the circles cut out.

Again, placed them on the shirt and they are not glued down. The shirt should now be looking like that original game boy a great deal. We're still missing two small pieces but again those are easy.

I was now beginning to notice that the grey piece was a little bigger then I really wanted. So I trimmed it down both on length and width so that it was still looking like a square. Using these small pieces I was able to create the 'Start' and 'Select' buttons. I started with those new scraps that looked like this:

I cut it in half just to get the desired thickness. The scrap now looked something like this:

From here I cut that small, thin piece into small rectangles that were about the size I wanted for the buttons. I then rounded the corners out so that it then looked like the buttons did. They turned out like this:

As you guess, I placed them on the shirt and didn't glue them! The final product without any glue should look like the following:

You may have asked by now why I didn't glue anything. Well, that's because I like to be able to move things around or correct if I need to. Which I did with the screen by the end of the project. As of right now, the only thing that is actually glued is the green felt to the grey felt. This is because I did not have anything to put between the front and back of the shirt so that the glue didn't glue the shirt together. I will look tomorrow for something to put in between and finish the glueing. I may also add the actual lettering for 'A', 'B', 'Start', and 'Select' with some fabric paint pens I bought for my niece to be able to decorate her own shirt for her baby brother.

As for what glue to use, that is up to you. My sister-in-law and I decided on the one shown below because it seemed like it would work the best. It was able to be washed in the washer, it dried in about 48 hours, and would hold. You may want to look at whatever store you go to and decide on your own or ask questions of someone to see what they may recommend. I believe we made our final decision based upon price because there were two types that were very similar and didn't have too much difference in care and use instructions.

Enjoy making your Game Boy throw back! I had fun and even have someone question if I made it when I showed them. If I had more time for things, I would have sewed things using the transparent thread either with or instead of the glue just to make sure. However, sometimes we all feel lazy and this was one of them. I knew the glue would probably work and so we went just with that. If you feel so inclined to sew go for it! My next one might be sewn but I'm not sure yet and when that will be.

I do have another project planned while I'm here with my niece which will be posted as well!