When a Nerd becomes a Dad...

When a nerd becomes a dad...
...he asks for some unique burp cloths!
To refresh your memory, I digitized applique designs of four superhero emblems to make a ribbon blanket for Jason and Anna's son Torin. It was received with the enthusiasm I expected, and very quickly Jason requested burp cloths with those same designs. Jason wanted more, but with the holidays, impending birth of Dashiell, and then infanthood, he has patiently waited until now.

While the style of the last batch looked cool, Anna wasn't thrilled with the multiple fabric types on one burp cloth. In an effort to please Mommy, Jason and I opted to put the emblems directly on the cloth diaper, and use ribbon to represent the dominant color of the costume.


This burp cloth is not a superhero reference, but SciFi... Kathy digitized the text for me (TTF Papyrus) that I stitched on the ribbon.

Gift set for Baby Nathan

Paige and I both worked at our daughters' preschool while we were pregnant with our boys... sometimes the two of us were quite a comical combination between nausea, back aches, dizziness and waddling. :)
Nathan was born about 5 weeks after Dashiell, and Paige's baby shower was today. Here's the gift set I made for them:

The applique N is from Embroidery Boutique's Fun Applique Alphabet. I used the Jason font from 8 Claws and a Paw for "Nathan".



I used a different technique for the applique process for the first time, since I knew it was going to be a challenge to trim all the detail of that 4-inch "N" on the onesie. I have "Applique Fuse and Stick" available at Terradon Embroidery. I followed their instructions for applique method one:
* Fuse Applique Fuse and Stick to the wrong side of the fabric that you will use as the applique'.
* Hoop that fabric and stitch the first outline onto it.
* Unhoop and trim the fabric close to the outline stitches.
* Hoop the garment and stitch the next color which is the placement outline for the applique.
* Peel the paper liner from the applique to expose the adhesive.
* Place the applique onto the garment matching and covering the placement outline.
* Continue stitching the design.

I was pleased with how successful I was with my first attempt! I won't use this method all the time for applique, but certainly with onesies and other little shirts that are more complicated to stitch on!

F is for Farm!

This week Annaliese's class is studying the letter "F" with a focus on "Farm." I knew this was coming, so back in November when I bought a custom design set from
Sew Many Designs, I picked this cute FARM design. SMD applique designs take a while to stitch out (lots of fabric patches and detail) but they stitch flawlessly and are sooooooooo cute! I especially love her word designs that substitute items for letters (like the NOEL shirt I made in November).



I also have Designs by JuJu's Barnyard Buddies. I had lofty goals of embellishing jeans or a skirt with these designs, but that didn't happen. Maybe at another time...

My Heart Belongs to...

While shopping at Target, I found the cutest Valentine's Day outfit for Dashiell. I couldn't guarantee that I would have time to stitch something quite so cute for him, so I bought it with a gift card. Reminder, I did not make this:

Annaliese can still wear the Valentine's shirt I made last year which I thought I was going to duplicate this year in a larger size, so I now had some "free time" (HA HA) to stitch a different valentine's shirt for her. I decided to attempt coordinating shirts for Annaliese and Dashiell. I knew I would never find a monkey design as cute as Dashiell's so I asked Annaliese and Carlin what they would like on her shirt. After some debate, they settled on a tiger. Grandma Kathy helped me immensely with this design. She found the tiger, and then digitized the lettering using Dashiell's shirt as a model. Here are the final results:

I think it turned out really cute! Here are a few modeled pictures from Valentine's Day (you can see more at our family blog once I get them posted). The kiddos:

My Mr. Carlin Trammel with his mini me:

and me and my boy!

Valentine Bags for Preschool Party

This year I signed up to bring goody bags for Annaliese's class party, mainly because I had bought this cute Valentine bag design from Sewing for Sarah!

The front has a mini-chalkboard (vinyl chalkboard fabric) and slots for chalk and crayons. We filled the back pocket with a pad of paper, stickers, and a piece of felt to erase the chalkboard. For the boys, I substituted an applique rectangle for the heart, I figured they would like that better. I personalized them all, as well.


These stitch together pretty quickly. I pre-cut all the fabric, as well as the heart/rectangle of chalkboard fabric. Then when I was ready to stitch, everything was ready to go. Each bag takes less than 15 min to stitch, and most of the time I was able to clip bobbin thread, remove stabilizer, trim around edges and invert one bag while stitching the next. Made for a nice assembly line production. I'm glad there are only six in her class though. Doubt I'll do this for kindergarten next year! :)

Recent baby gift orders

Michelle knows five families having babies within a few months of each other! Here are three of her orders...

First she gave Paige a Special Delivery onesie gift certificate. Nathan was born a couple weeks ago, and I've gotten his onesie stitched. The design is from Sew Terific.


One of Michelle's coworkers had a baby boy. I used Five Star Font's Scrappy Applique for the monogram. (I love this fabric/color combination and will be making one for Dashiell in the near future!)

Michelle also ordered this bib/burp cloth set for Tracy who is expecting a baby girl.

The monogram on the burp cloth is Whimsy Dots by Five Star Fonts.

For the bib, I used the same font for Audrey's name, and added dots to create the frame.

The gifts for the other two families will be posted later!

Dashiell's First Valentine's Day

Embroidery Library has a really cute set of "Baby's First" designs. My goal is to make a bib for Dashiell for most of these holidays (some we don't celebrate, some have already past). Here is Dashiell's Valentine's Day bib:

The designs originally have the text as "Baby's First..." but I wanted it personalized. While I love Embird Alphabet #8, I decided to try something different, attempting to match the character of the font Embroidery Library used for the design. I settled on the TTF Andy, and Kathy digitized it for me with Font Engine. I like the way it looks. Now I need her to do St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July... :) I guess when we get back around to Christmas and New Years, I'll have to skip the "Dashiell's First" part.

And here is Dashiell wearing his bib: