Back to School bags

I took this picture Sunday night before going to sleep, all of our bags packed and ready for the first day of school!

Annaliese's backpack from last year (errr, two years ago!)  is still holding up, so I didn't have any monogramming to do for her.
Dashiell picked out this Spider-man backpack and lunchbox set. I knew I'd make a keychain type tag for his lunchbox.

We debated (at great length) WHERE the monogram should go on his backpack. Front and center didn't work because it would cover up the spider symbol.  He nixed every suggestion I made, and I physically couldn't do his suggestions. Boy, he was getting frustrated. Finally he said, "can you put it here?" and pointed to the little plastic sleeve for contact info. I said, "sure!"

NO JOKE this took less than five minutes. I hooped tearaway, sprayed adhesive, laid down a piece of black vinyl, stitched the monogram, trimmed the rectangle to proper size and slid it in. EASIEST bag monogramming job ever!

I was going to use ribbon for the tag on his lunchbox but realized the vinyl would be super cool. I just monogrammed a strip, folded it in half around a D-ring, and stitched it up on my sewing machine! We used 8CP Spidey font for his monogram

As I have done in the past, I bought a couple Publix shopping bags and monogrammed them to deliver school supplies in. I picked I2S Box Font Applique for the big monograms which made it easy to cover the printed logo. To make things simpler, I skipped the satin stitches and just made the applique raggy (yes, I admit I was doing this at 9pm on Sunday night). I love this print with the tiny owls!

I used Cinnamon Cake to add Mrs. Harvey's name:

And I used Jelly Bean to add Ms. Sperling's name:

I thought they turned out cute!

If you don't own the Box Font alphabet set or number set,  they are on sale until Friday morning! You can read all the details on the I2S Facebook page, but in short -- it's because they are my favorite and we are celebrating my 1 year anniversary with I2S :) ENJOY!

Monogramming for myself!

Big news at The Itch 2 Stitch... Fancy Circle has had a facelift! Lots of changes to the files, but the two most significant changes were altering the size of the right letters, and adjusting the fill settings for the large sizes. I'm super excited about it and was anxious to put it to use! I monogrammed a couple items for myself to show the differences between the 4.5" and 5.5" sizes. I used the 4.5" size on this bag sitting in my stash. At this size the font is completely satin stitch!! (Previously there were small sections of the center letter that had a split satin stitch.)

Isn't it gorgeous?!

For one of my coverups I used the 5.5" size. It features a split satin for most of the letter.

Equally pretty!

I've got a sweatshirt waiting for a jumbo monogram... I might try a double hooping project using the 6.5" size! We shall see... ;)

Custom gift bags

In keeping with Dashiell's insistance to buy toys to take as gifts to birthday parties, we have compromised by me making custom bags to wrap said toys in. :)
For Audrey, I actually put a pocket on a pink tote bag. I stitched the I2S TuTu Cute Bunny design on fabric first, and then made it into a pocket on the front of the bag:

Rex and Anthony got Spider-man themed monogram tote bags like Owen and Joey did! I used 8CP's Web applique and Spidey fonts. I completely forgot to take a picture of Rex's until we were at the park, so all I have is a phone pic:

And I didn't realize how bad my pic of Anthony's was until it was too late! But I wanted to show it off anyway, I took a gamble and resized the Spidey font to 50% to get his name on there. Anthony is significantly longer than Rex in this font, ha! But it worked!

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.

First Day of School 2013

Another school year is here, and my kids are ready!

Oh wait! I promise that's the result of bright sunshine and gnats on the grassy lot outside of school. Let's try again against the building...

Both of my kids were very excited to start school back up today! That is a blessing I do not take for granted. They were also both thrilled with their first day of school shirts that they helped design. Neither are exactly what *I* would have picked in terms of fabrics and threads, but it's exactly what they wanted, and I aim to please my two favorite customers. :)

Annaliese selected East Coast Applique's "Sweet Grade" design. I added "4th" by using the 4 from 8CP's Frills and the th from 8CP's Waiting.

She has two skirts in her closet that we love (great length for her long legs plus they built in shorts) but they are ODD colors and we can't find matching shirts for them. Applique to the rescue! :) Although honestly I didn't have much fabric in my stash to match them either. She decided to pick colors so that it would match BOTH skirts. Whew, that was a challenge but we figured it out!

 Dashiell loved ECA's School is a Blast design. I wish I could have recorded our negotiation session picking fabrics and threads. Green had to go (it's sneaky afterall). It was ok for the pencil to be yellow, but the star could NOT be yellow. So he made that red and insisted that "is" be yellow in it's place. He also wanted a solid red P and not one of my "beautiful" fabrics (I had picked a cool chevron or a cool stripe for him to choose from). So... it's not exactly the most balanced and legible design, but it's what he wanted :)

 And his reaction to the completed shirt made it worthwhile: "Wow Mommy that's great! I could wear that forever!"

Our kids delivered their school supplies in personalized shopping totes:

 Annaliese's classroom is decorated with a baseball theme, so I used ECA's divided baseball (vintage stitch) and 8CP's College Block Small.

Dashiell's teacher likes cherries :) So I went on a hunt for a large single cherry design to use as a patch. I ended up modifying 8CP's Applique Cherries design. I separated out one of the cherries and enlarged it A LOT (like 80%?!) which of course made the satin stitches huge. That's ok, my plan was to delete them anyway and just make it a raggy patch. When I deleted the satin stitches, I noticed the tackdown was a lovely blanket stitch, which worked perfectly! :)  I added her name with 8CP's Janessa.

Misc. Monogramming

Recent random monogramming projects...
A pretty monogram on an apron. This was my first time using 8CP's Monogram 3. I have no idea why I waited so long, I really like it! It needs to get in my rotation! (oh, and it has, I monogrammed my swimsuit coverup after doing this apron.)

Monogrammed bib for Caden. I used 8CP's Pops.

Added a quick monogram to this shirt. Annaliese picked 8CP's Be Mine. Pardon the pic, the shirt has been worn and washed several times, but the "completeist" in me requires that it be posted. ha!

In celebration of our school's 25th anniversary, they had a "dress up like what you want to be in 25 years" day. Annaliese wants to be a movie director, so I used 8CP's Skinny to add DIRECTOR to this hat:

I made a new key fob for myself! DigiStitches Quilted Key Fob 2, Itch 2 Stitch Fancy Circle Monogram, Vera Bradley napkin to match my bag:

And my friend Rebecca mentioned wanting to get some Publix bags before she leaves the south. I still had a couple of these pretty blue ones in my stash, so like the previous ones I have done for teachers, I added her monogram with LP's Taylor font.

Monogrammed Totes

My daughter had a little gathering with four of her dear friends today to celebrate her birthday, and as a party favor I monogrammed these totes (they will be perfect for trips to the pool in a couple of months!)

I used the Corinthia Script from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches. I had purchased it when it was briefly available back in 2010, but now it's back with additional sizes! When I redownloaded the files I felt like my investment had doubled in value! I used the 3" size for the initial and 1.5" size for the names. I used hot pink on the lime totes, and aqua on the red totes.

 

I'm looking forward to using this font more!

Repairing and Accessorizing my Vera Bradley Purse

I love my Vera Bradley purse. When the print I wanted was discontinued I watched the online price carefully until it got low enough that I could justify buying it, and I bought two coordinating napkins so I could make my own accessories.
I made one key fob three months later, and then five months after that I made a second key fob that was longer in length.
And then nothing... no more in-the-hoop accessories even though I had lofty goals.

I've used the purse for 2 years now and it's starting to show it's age, especially the handles with exposed batting. Before retiring the bag, I decided to attempt repairing it myself with the napkins I still had laying around! I am blown away by how just a little bit of effort made a huge difference in the appearance!

I don't really have good pics of how I did it. I just cut 3.5" strips, wrapped them around the handles, folding in the outside edge, pinned in place, and stitched three quilting lines like what was already on the handle. It's not perfect, but it sure looks better than it did!

Then with the remaining fabric I finally took time to make some coordinating zipper totes:

The first two cases are from Embroidery Garden's Zipper Cases set. This is the debit/business card holder. I used the Smaller Fancy Circle monogram from the Itch 2 Stitch.

I also followed the directions for adding a divider in the middle. I'm not the best photographer though. :)

I also made the iPhone case. I wish I could claim that this was on purpose, but check out my happy accident! I could not have matched those fabrics along the zipper more perfectly if I tried!!

FYI, even though this zipper case was designed for the shorter iPhone 4, an iPhone 5 does fit comfortably inside, as long as it isn't in a case. Right now I have my iPhone in a silicone case, and while I can get it in the zipper tote, I can't quickly remove it, which might be problematic while answering a call. But that may be more the nature of the stickyish silicone and not the size. In reality it doesn't matter, I wasn't planning on using it as an iPhone case, just wanted to make this size. :)

And finally I made a see-through case. This 4x4 design is currently a freebie on EG's Facebook page, so if you do machine embroidery, go grab it fast!

So in this case, procrastination paid off. I still had fabric left to fix my handles, and I was less nervous about cutting apart my napkins and trying out these zipper cases since it was for an old bag anyway. Now that I've practiced, I can move forward confidently making accessories for my new VB backpack, which I got on sale after Christmas. Hopefully that blog post won't be another 2 years off. :)

Let me add that I use Vera Bradley napkins for personal use only. I haven't done any research, but I'm guessing their fabrics would fall under the same category as licensed fabric which is not intended for commercial use.

Zipper totes!!

I bought Embroidery Garden's Zipper Cases set way back in April when it was released, but I'm embarrassed to say I just this month finally put them to use! I always have lofty goals...
I made these two for sweet little girls that have been my guinea pigs and gift recipients for over five years... it's getting hard to come up with new ideas. Ha!

 EG's zipper cases are completely lined with no exposes seams. She's a genius! I used different shades of lime on the inside of these:

 These files are designed to be quilted, but I opted to skip the batting and quilting lines. (Tip, if you decide to do this, be sure you fabric is very secure (spray and pins) before monogramming, otherwise you will end up with a puckery mess. Ask me how I know.)
I used 8CP's Golden to add their names. Such a great font for girls!

 I also made a zipper tote for one of Annaliese's school buddies. I did hers first, and it was because of the sparkly stars on this fabric that I got the notion to skip the quilting lines. BUT for whatever reason I didn't think to secure the fabric that well, and WHOA did I get some puckers. Oh well, my daughter loved it and insisted on giving it anyway. Which was good, I didn't have time nor another zipper that color. :) I used 8CP's Pixie Dust to add her name. Remember, puckers are user error, not design or font issues!!
This zipper matched some of the shiny star bursts, so I picked that color for the thread. But I didn't have any fabric that color in my stash, so white it was for the lining.

These are so fun! Just today I ordered myself a new Vera Bradley bag with matching napkin -- I plan to make some coordinating items! :)

First Day of School 2012

Another school year is off to a great start. But I'm blogging so late in the day! In years past I've hustled home after drop off and posted pictures right away, but this year is different (more on that in my next blog post).
Here are the kids this morning before dropping Annaliese off:

For Annaliese's shirt I used Lynnie Pinnie's Third Grade Rocks design.

For Dashiell's shirt I used East Coast Applique's Pre-K tag design. I customized it with our school name using the Tiny Alphabet from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Annaliese has used the same backpack for 3 years so I suppose it's time for a new one! I found myself monogramming this at 8:45pm last night... talk about waiting until the last minute!

I used 8CP's Pizazz to create the monogram. I love the way her initials look in this font! There was no easy way to put the monogram on the front the way the pockets are and how the lunch box attaches, so I put it on the top.

And there was no way I could monogram the lunch box, so I made a little keychain out of ribbon to attach to the handle.

Like last year, I monogrammed a Publix shopping bag for their teachers, and we used them to deliver all their school supplies. This is the Taylor Monogram font Lynnie Pinnie.