Recent Party Gifts

My son had two buddies that had January birthdays. I asked him what designs we should put on a shirt for each of them, and he immediately said, "NO MOM!!!!!! We never take TOYS to parties!!!!" Taken aback ;) I said, "But don't you love all your special shirts I've made you? Didn't you love your Man of 5teel shirt for your birthday?" He explained that yes, he did love all his shirts, but he also got toys for his birthday and his friends would be so sad if we didn't give them toys. SIGH.
This comes right on the heels of me stating on the Success With Embroidery podcast that my FAVORITE thing to do is make birthday shirts for party gifts. Oh the irony!
Well, we compromised. I monogrammed some denim tote bags in my stash, which we then used to wrap a toy that he picked out. Win-win I guess. :) He made sure to tell his buddies that it was a bag to keep, not to throw away like the rest.

I used 8CP's Web Applique font for the initial and Spidey for their names.

 

My daughter also attended a birthday party recently, but she is still excited to takes shirts as party gifts, especially if it includes a matching doll shirt!

I really wanted to show off these cute prints that I had gotten from Whimsical Fabrics, so I picked the I2S Ice Cream Box design. It didn't have the doll size at the time, but Cristy digitized it for me and we added it to the zip file! :)  I added Lindsay's name with Borders Divide.

Heart Box for my girls

Simple design with awesome fabrics make for a nice quick Valentine's day shirt for my daughter... and her doll!

This is I2S's Heart Box. The file has been updated, so if you do custom embroidery and already own this design, go redownload it from your account online! (Slightly new heart shape, and now includes the 2.75" size for dolls.)

I love the colors of these heart prints. I used the large scale for Annaliese:

And the small scale for Anna:

Sweet and simple!

Patriotic Shirts 2013

My kids are ready to celebrate this summer thanks to their mommy getting to test new designs for some of her favorite digitizers!

Annaliese and Anna are sporting their new shirts featuring LP's Swirl Firecracker applique. I used Hobby Lobby's Glitter Fabric sheets for the first time on these. So fun!! I used the 6x10 for Annaliese and the 2.5" version for Anna. I actually did Anna's first, and I'm so glad... I wasn't totally in love with my choices. I didn't like the way the gold looked with this color combo:

So I polled the other LP testers to get suggestions for how I should rearrange the colors, and decided to swap the glitter fabrics and replace the gold with silvery gray. Much better!

Dashiell LOVES his new shirt:

I got to test Embroidery Boutique's Split Single Star design, and added his name with 8CP's Puppy Love.

He was very involved in the process. He selected the fabric, and then carefully examined if my thread choices matched. ;)

April Showers bring May Flowers!

When I saw this Watering Can with Flower Garden design for Lynnie Pinnie, I remembered Annaliese's four layer skirt that didn't have a matching shirt. (Gasp!) We spent time on a Sat afternoon looking through my fabric stash (these are odd colors!) and found four 5" charms from my Fairy Frost set that worked great!

My plan was to make her shirt after she went to bed. That afternoon something exciting happened, I got a package from Blanks Boutique with a new ruffle shirt for her AND American Girl doll size shirts! Woo-hoo! I was able to not only use the 6x10 size for Annaliese...

 

but also the 4x4 size for Anna! YES, a full 4" long design fit on the doll shirt! No resizing required!

 

Isn't this a cute set?

 

So fun... I love getting to do this. :)

Now, we both have a blue/aqua/mint 4 layer skirt that need matching shirts... still waiting for something perfect for those. :)

Annaliese is NINE!

Today my girl is NINE! I can't believe it!

This year we selected Itch2Stitch's Cupcake Box design for her birthday shirt, primarily because it came with a 2.5" version just perfect for an American Girl doll shirt. Color palette was picked to match these shorts.

We contemplated putting a 9 in the cupcake wrapper, but Annaliese decided to go with something more subtle, so we added nine sprinkles to the cupcake. I used Quirky from I2S to add their names.

This doll shirt is from ARB Blanks:

I made Annaliese and Anna's shirts last week, so proud of myself for getting them done early! Over the weekend we went to Build-A-Bear and she made a Rainbow Dash. Once we were home she asked if she had any shirts that matched BAB shirts. Sadly, she's outgrown all the things I made a few years ago when she got her first BAB. So I whipped up a little surprise for her this morning, a "shirt" for Rainbow Dash. :)

I had to be creative, dressing a pony with wings is very different than a traditional teddy bear! I have some 0-3 month side snap shirts in my stash, and thought that would be easy since it wraps around. I cut slits for the wings and tail, and appliqued the cake patch right where her cutie mark is. It's not perfect, but it got the job done. :)

 I have two more of those shirts so you might see some more in the future!

Whooooooo loves owls?

We sure do! Last weekend I stitched owls exclusively, it was fun!
I've had this shirt/shorts set sitting on my sewing table for weeks now, waiting for an applique design to be added. We had settled on an ice cream cone, but I just hadn't gotten around to it. And once school started, Annaliese decided it was too late to do ice cream. In walks Lynnie Pinnie to save the day! This outfit turned out to be the perfect canvas for the Owl on a Branch design.

I picked the brown and peach fabrics to match the colors in her shorts. I debated a while what other color to throw in the mix since the owl needed more variety, and realized I'd be using green on the leaves, why not? I love how it turned out!

Lyndsie also created Owl Felt Clippies. I picked hot pink felt for the base, and used the same peach floral fabric for the body.

Makes a cute set, right??

Then I put the Stacked Owl Trio design on a long sleeved shirt, and someone else got a new tee, too!

This design comes in 4 sizes. I was going to use the smaller 6x10 size, but Annaliese really wanted me to use my new Riley Blake chevron fabrics... who could blame her?! So I jumped to the larger 6x10 size to try to showcase the fabric as much as possible. Here's a quick cell phone pic I took in the process of sewing, I was pleased as punch with my fabric placement!

Let me brag on Miss Lynnie Pinnie for a moment. This design was fabulously digitized (as always). I love the way the fabric was tacked down, starting with the top owl and moving down. I was able to use scraps from trimming the orange owl to do the wings on the purple owl, and then use scraps from trimming the purple owl as the wings on the pink owl. Each owl has seven thread colors on it, but the pathing and sequencing for these was so perfect that each thread was only in the machine once! It was just amazing.

Lyndsie also released a couple different small owl designs. Annaliese picked the Small Owl applique to go on a shirt for her American Girl Doll (and the coloring of the middle owl). This design was the perfect size!

Ok, I have more to say about my design placement for these shirts, but this post is long enough! So I'll include that info in a separate post.

Matching Monogrammed Shirts for girl and doll :)

Annaliese attended a birthday party yesterday so I whipped up a little gift. Presley received an American Girl doll for her birthday, and we took matching monogram shirts!

I used Embroidery Boutique's Vintage Applique Alphabet since it comes in multiple sizes. The smallest size is perfect for a doll shirt! I chose some of my Riley Blake fabrics that I won from Whimsical Fabrics. I thought it worked really well using the large motif print on Presley's and the small motif print on Marisa Boa's shirt. (Cute name, right?! :)

I got the doll shirt at Michael's. Annaliese really wanted me to cut off the sleeves so the shirts would really match, but I didn't want to mess with hemming something so tiny. Especially since I finished it only 20 minutes before we needed to leave. Ha! Hopefully Presley won't mind. If she does, her momma can just chop those sleeves off. :)

One last turkey shirt...

Even though I was super good and got Annaliese's turkey shirt made before November 1, I did end up stitching a turkey for her on Thanksgiving day...
Wednesday evening Annaliese was invited to bring her American Girl doll to Thanksgiving dinner. She asked me if Anna had a turkey shirt. Drat, I thought I had gotten away with not making one. :) I did end up with a bit of free time during nap time, so here's what I whipped up!

I took the 4x4 size of the applique turkey from the Harvest Patchwork set at Designs by JuJu and reduced it. I also deleted the satin stitches to save time. I had scraps from Annaliese's shirt which already had HNBL on it, so it went pretty quickly. The true creativity came in finding a blank. I knew I had a brown onesie in my stash, but discovered it was a short-sleeve 9-12 month size, which is HUGE for a doll. I decided to use it anyway. Chopped it off, did the applique, then took in the side seams/sleeves. I just laid an AG shirt on top of the onesie, drew in seam lines and stitched. Definitely NOT an exact science!

It fit Anna quite well, and bonus, it turned into a long sleeved shirt! Annaliese was quite pleased!

Now I'm hoping Annaliese's turkey shirt still fits her next Thanksgiving so they can match for another year!

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Sorry blog followers, I have been too busy to blog! I have TONS of baby items to share, and have done several Christmas shirts already with several more to go... I hope sometime soon I can sit down and get caught up. Today is just a real quick post to share my daughter's new Christmas shirt:

This Christmas tree design is one of the newest ones from Lynnie Pinnie. I put the 6x10 deco stitch design on Annaliese's shirt:

And the 4x4 deco stitch design on a chopped off newborn onesie for her American Girl doll:

Both stitched great and made such a cute pair! As do my girl and her doll. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My to do list is very long, so I have moved my "closing date" to this Sunday November 20. I will no longer accept new orders for 2011 after that point. If you want something from me before mid-January, speak now or forever hold your peace... or at least until after January 5. :)

Pumpkin Shirt

The danger of doing custom embroidery for friends is that when my daughter sees a new project (like Audrey's pumpkin shirt) she immediately wants something similar! Of course it would be too easy if she wanted the exact same pumpkin and font... so the only similarity to Audrey's shirt is the Ta Dot fabric. :)

 We sat down together with my computer and looked at all the pumpkin designs I had, plus additional designs online. She selected Applique Market's Plump Pumpkin (of course one I didn't own yet). She wasn't a fan of the way her name looked in the Butterball font, so we scrolled through 8CP's font list and she picked Another Dot Alphabet.

She loves it, and insisted on wearing it to school this morning even though today's high is 88 degrees.
And notice that someone else got a new pumpkin shirt...

For Anna, I took one of Dashiell's old 0-3month Gerber onesies, chopped it off and appliqued the pumpkin/name on it. It's a little big, but that's ok, it's for a doll. ;) I may take it in a bit on both sides, but really, I doubt it. I used the 4x4 size and shrunk it down, probably to about 70%? Same with the font. And they both stitched remarkably well!

 

Me and My Doll aprons

Ever since Annaliese got an American Girl doll, she has asked for the "Me and My Doll" kits whenever we see them at Walmart or Hobby Lobby. I've always told her no because frankly I haven't been thrilled with the colors/patterns I've seen on these printed panel kits for matching bags or doll dresses. But a couple weeks ago when I discovered that one of our Walmart locations is getting a fabric cutting counter back (YES!) they had the "Me and My Doll" items on clearance. I dug through and found one that looked decent... matching aprons. This weekend Annaliese and I worked on them together:

The kit was simply a fabric panel:

 I cut out the pieces for Annaliese's apron, and she cut out the pieces for the doll apron -- and did a great job! After that, she just hung out of my bed playing while I sewed. :)
The fabric is very thin, and the directions called for serging edges, folding under 3/8" and top stitching. I was not thrilled with that idea, so I dug through my fabric stash and found something to line the entire apron. I'll be honest, I'm pretty proud of myself. :)  I have very limited garment construction experience, and I definitely prefer to follow directions, so "winging it" isn't something I do often. I'm glad I had a tiny version to practice on first! The doll apron turned out well, so I was safe to proceed onto Annaliese's, and her's turned out to be completely reversible (although the other side is boring and I doubt she'll wear it that way).

This may shock you, but there is no embroidery on these... And I don't know if I'll monogram them. Probably not unless she asks me to.
Annaliese really likes her apron, and as soon as we were done she wanted to go to the kitchen to make something. Thankfully I had a package of pudding that was sufficient. :)