Matching Spring Attire for Easter Sunday

Back in the fall Carla and I ordered products from Dharma Trading to do embroidery for our kids. I had one short sleeved dress left, and needed to stitch on it before Annaliese out grows it. I decided that Easter was a good opportunity to use it, but didn't want designs that were holiday related. I went with a spring theme so that she could wear it often throughout the next few months. While helping me brainstorm, Kathy suggested some beautiful flowers from Carolyn Designs. We decided that it would be pretty to scatter several along the bottom of the skirt and put a smaller design on the bodice of the dress. Here's what the final outcome looks like:


This was my first multi-hooping project. To achieve all the embroidery on the bottom, I printed templates for six different flowers and all the little creatures and laid them out on the bottom of skirt. Once I had them arranged the way I wanted, I merged designs within Embird to stitch it in 3 hoopings instead of 6-10. The orange and pink flowers with hummingbird and snail were in one hooping, the yellow and pink flowers w/butterfly were in a second hooping, and blue and purple flowers w/a snail were in a third hooping. I was a little nervous stitching the last set of designs, hoping I had placed everything well so petals of one didn't stitch on top of stems of another. I was thrilled with the results!
(Click to enlarge)

For the bodice I found 3 freebies on her site of flying creatures, so I merged them and stitched them in a fourth hooping.

So after four hoopings, 18500 stitches, fifteen colors, and 32 thread changes, it all got done Thursday night. When Annaliese saw it Friday morning she said, "OH MY! Can I wear it??" :)
I decided to make a matching shirt for myself. This morning I bought a new white top and stitched it all again. It's basically identical. I did switch thread colors in five places primarily for contrast reasons. I can tell when looking at them in person, but my close-up photos don't show a difference. I was afraid I would need to add an extra flower on each side of the design, but when I put it on, it looks fine.


My one regret about this project... When I ordered the romper for Naomi, I almost ordered this shirt for myself. Wouldn't that have been perfect?? Oh well. I like the style of this square neckline shirt, and I'll be wearing the shirt for years to come, while Annaliese only has a couple months in her dress.

Here we are Easter Sunday. Carlin held his breath long enough to take a picture of us in front of the lovely bushes at church. :)