Adrian's Pillowcase... finally...

When I posted pictures of Hudson's pillowcase, my aunt immediately asked if I had more of that sports fabric to make one for her grandson. Of course I did not have enough left for a full-sized pillowcase, so I went on a hunt for great sports fabric. Adrian is really into soccer, so this is the final result. Let me show the pictures first, and then the saga:



I searched a couple stores, and decided on this soccer ball print, and bought my supplies, following the directions given on Crafty Chic. I sent Linda a few font options, and we settled on one that had a very sporty look. It was big enough that his name didn't fit within one hooping, but I figured I could rehoop and get it all lined up just fine. I added soccer ball designs to either side of his name and got started. This is when the learning process began...

First of all, LESSON LEARNED, test stitch free alphabets, even from sources that have produced nice designs before. This particular alphabet did not stitch well at all! It puckered like crazy, parts of letters didn't line up, it was a disaster. I should have stopped stitching after the first couple letters, but since I had already constructed the entire pillowcase and was basically on the last step, I decided to let it play out. Even though the first half didn't look very good, I was actually crazy enough to try to rehoop and finish the name. You can see from the picture that I did not get it lined up very well. I went ahead and completed the pillowcase, then included it with a load of laundry to see what it looked like afterward. I was pretty disappointed with the results. SIGH. I'm sure it's good enough to sleep on, but I would be embarrassed for someone to say, "Janay made that!"
Click picture for enlarged view of embroidery disaster:

So I decided to start over. I figured it would take just as long to rip out seams to reuse the fabric than to just buy more and start over. This time, I picked a font I was confident would stitch well (Embird Alphabet #8), fit it all in one hooping, and stitched the name on the band BEFORE constructing the pillowcase. And instead of doing french seams, I used my overlock stitch to prevent unraveling on the inside. It went together so much more smoothly!! Even though it was annoying to botch up the first pillowcase, I'm glad I went through this learning process. Now I feel much more confident about doing pillowcases. And the bonus is that Adrian gets two pillowcases for the price of one. Now I'm just waiting for Annaliese to start requesting them...