Around these parts, we wear our hearts on our sleeves and on our shirts. Spice up your Valentine’s Day wardrobe by embellishing a basic top with a playful heart. We’ve got four varieties to share, including a sneaky one that shows up when you roll up your sleeve! Get it? You’ll literally be wearing a heart on your sleeve ;)
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– plain shirts (t-shirts, sweatshirts, tanks, button-ups)
– fabric
– embroidery floss
– fusible web
– cardboard
– paper
Tools:
– fabric fusion
– fabric scissors
– embroidery needle
– pencil
– tape
Instructions:
1. Look at your shirt and decide how large the heart will be.
2. Draw a heart on your paper and cut it out – if it’s large, you’ll need to use two sheets of paper and tape them together.
3. Trace your heart onto the back of the fabric and then cut.
4. Do the same thing with the fusible web.
5. Iron the fusible web to the heart to make it stronger – be sure you don’t let your iron touch the side with glue or it will get real funky.
6. Whipstitch around the edges of your heart to make sure they don’t fray.
7. Place the cardboard inside the shirt where you will be adding the heart. This way the glue won’t seep through and bond the front of your shirt to the back.
8. Using fabric glue, adhere the heart to your shirt.
9. Let it dry for a few hours and don’t wash it for at least 48. Then, wear your heart out ;)
We grabbed a few super soft shirts from American Apparel and some great polka dot fabric from our local fabric store, Britex.
The first order of business is making a pattern. The easiest way to cut out a perfect heart is to fold your paper in half, draw half a heart along the seam, and then cut out your shape. When you unfold it, you’ll have yourself a heart.
We cut out a few different sizes since we made four different shirts.
Use your new pattern to trace a heart on your fabric. Snip, snip, snip and you’ll have your fabric hearts ready to go.
Repeat that process with the fusible web and iron it to the fabric. This will make your heart a little bit more sturdy (we’re not saying you need to harden your heart – you’re perfect just the way you are).
Now it’s time to whipstitch this baby. Using your embroidery thread, sew around the edges of the heart to make sure it doesn’t fray.
Keep going with as many hearts as you’re makin’.
Once you’ve got your hearts all ready to go, it’s time to glue.
We put cardboard in the shirt to make sure we didn’t glue the shirt together. Dab a thin layer of fabric glue around the edge of the heart and then press it to your shirt.
Repeat with as many shirts as you plan on making.
For the button-up, you’ll need to try the shirt on, roll up the sleeve and mark where the heart should go. It’s much easier to do when it’s on your body but this step isn’t totally necessary. You can eyeball it.
How cute are these?! Our hearts are full and we’re ready to spread the love. We heart these shirts and hope you do too!
What DIY Valentine’s projects are on your list this year? Talk to us in the comments below.
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures