Another quick superhero-themed shirt for my boy

Yesterday Dashiell told me that he wanted a Venom shirt. I told him I couldn't do it right then but could work on it over the weekend. Then he said to me, "Remember, Lyndsie has to make a design and then send it to your computer!" That made me laugh out loud! Maybe at five years old he does kind of get the process... I've obviously tested a lot of LP designs for my kids to refer to Lyndsie by name!  A bit later he clarified that he didn't want a "cutie pie" design but the actual Venom symbol. :) So I digitized it myself!

I used a triple bean stitch to tack down the knit and trimmed it out of the hoop. Quick stitch, only 5 minutes I think, but MAN that took a while to trim. I didn't get a flat close-up image of the shirt -- it was grabbed and put on immediately.

I wonder what he's going to ask for next?

Man of 5teel

Today my little man is FIVE! I'm not going to dwell on it much because I might cry. So let's talk about his shirt!
This kid is way into superheroes and has been his whole life. With the exception of his first birthday I have made a superhero themed shirt for all of his previous birthdays: Two-perman, Boy Wond3r, The 4lash, and now let me introduce you to my little Man of 5teel!!

We went back to Superman. We brainstormed all year for a different superhero to create a five emblem out of, but just couldn't think of anything. The reality is he LOVES Superman, was getting a Superman Imaginext set for his birthday, Man of Steel came out this year (not that he's seen it...) and frankly, an S looks a lot like a 5! Ha!

I digitized this myself using the same style as his Batman Beyond shirt (and the Super Seven shirt I made for Sean). I tacked down knit with a triple bean stitch, and trimmed leaving a raw edge exposed. Gotta love a design with a 4 minute stitch time!!
I based the emblem after the most recent Man of Steel symbol, but drew it to look a bit more like a five.

I was pleased with the results, and he loves it, which is the most important part. :)  He's a super kid and I'm thrilled he's mine!

Super Seven!

It's birthday time for Sean again! This year he had a Superman themed party, and his mommy gave me freedom to play with design ideas. This is something I did completely all on my own! (Pats self on back)

I do own a set of applique designs that is the alphabet done in the Superman shield style, but it doesn't include numbers. I wasn't finding anything good from trusted sources online, so I made my own! I drew the seven in the shield myself in Embird Studio and created this bean stitch design. I used knits so it wouldn't fray. This style is a nice way to do applique for boys that are getting older.

Oh, I guess I didn't do it COMPLETELY by myself, I did use 8CP's Gadzooks to add his name. Love that font! Perfect for superhero stuff.
Isn't he adorable?! Happy Birthday, Sean!

Making my boy happy!

Some projects take significant planning, require tons of decisions and meticulous work to create an awesome shirt.
Other times you get a quick idea and throw it together super duper fast.
This was the latter!

My son recently got his hands on my husband's old Batman Beyond action figure and they have been watching episodes on Netflix. Yesterday Dashiell was quite upset with me because his screen print Batman tee was still dirty (where oh where is the laundry fairy?!) and he NEEDED it to dress up as Batman Beyond. I reminded him that his shirt was gray, not black, and had a yellow/black logo, not red, so he would have to use his imagination anyway. That didn't go over well. ;)
Then I thought... hmmmmm... Do I have a black shirt? I sent him off to watch something with his big sister and I cranked this out really fast. LOOK AT THAT SMILE!!!

I have no desire to be a full time digitizer, but it is nice to have digitizing software for times like this. I traced the logo in my software and converted it to a triple bean stitch. I hooped a black tee I got on clearance for $1.25, laid down a piece of red knit and stitched the outline. Trimmed it out and took it back to my son.

His reaction was so cute. Gasped, said thank you, then immediately said, "I have to show this to Daddy!" He changed right away, slept in it, wore it to preschool, and I've promised that if he will wear pjs tonight I will wash it so it's clean in the morning. I hope the newness wears off before Sunday morning! :)

Custom shirts

Jason asked me to make a couple custom shirts, one for each of his boys. I'm not exactly sure of the stories behind each shirt... just created what he asked for! :) This one is for the older son:

I searched high and low for a good embroidery design (applique or fill-stitch) of a sitting howling wolf. No luck! Found one, but it was on a site I had never purchased from, and it gave no info about the design (size, stitch count, thread changes) so I didn't really want to spend the money and discover it was not appropriate for this project. (Side note to digitizers -- please provide this info on your site!!!) Soooooo.... I asked Jason to send me an image of what he was visualizing, and I digitized the silhouette myself.

I added the text (front and back) with Embird Alphabet #2. The soccer balls are from a Band to Bow CD I have (it may be this design?)

For the younger son's shirt, I digitized this rounded rectangle to look like a playing card and added the text (front and back) with Embird Alphabet #14.

Connect Women

My friend Leslie is a member of a women's group at her church called "Connect Women." She sent me their logo and asked if I could embroider it on some aprons they had purchased for an upcoming meeting.

Here's the logo image:

Amazingly enough I already had the font Scriptina digitized (it's from "SewCrazie" and I got it either on SewForum or her yahoo group a long time ago, but can't find links to it now.) It resized really well since I needed it significantly bigger. And I added "women" with Embird alphabet #2. The only thing I had to digitize were the little petals around the "o". I was excited to figure out how to import an image into Embird Editor and position each individual letter exactly where it needed to go. I don't think I've ever used that feature before! I took all of my pink and purple threads and let Leslie choose what I should use since I couldn't decide. :)

I'm pretty impressed with the results! I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of this brand of apron (or tote bags for that matter). I can't remember the brand name off the top of my head, but I know it's sold at Michaels and Walmart. The canvas is very textured and it makes the embroidery look jagged, even using solvy on top. My test stitch on felt looked WAY better. Now that we have a Hobby Lobby (♫ Hallelujah! ♫) I will recommend their aprons, which appear to be more fabric-like (maybe a bottom-weight?) than canvas. Any other suggestions for local purchase aprons?

Nerdy Ribbon Blanket, take 2!

When big brother Torin was born, I made a special one-of-a-kind superhero ribbon blanket for him. Now two years later little brother Nolan has arrived and needs his own special one-of-a-kind superhero ribbon blanket!
You've seen these designs already -- after digitizing them I first stitched them on some burp cloths that I sent to Jason and Anna before Nolan's birth.  I ran out of time to get the blanket made before he was born, and now over a month later it's done!

I used flannel for the front - I almost leaped with joy when I finally found gray flannel locally! :) I used white minkee on the back:

Here are close-ups of the applique designs. These are actually a bit bigger than the designs I did on the burp cloths, which made them easier to trim out.

I would love to see the boys together with their blankets, but alas, they live hundreds and hundreds of miles away, so I'll have to wait for a picture. :)

Promote Your Brand with Adorable Kids!

My husband recently started working for Onyx Group. Last week he got his hands on the digitized logo and sent it my way. I was anxious to test stitch the design, so guess who got a new t-shirt!!

(Special thanks to Sarah for letting me use this picture!)
The embroidery design is actually the pocket logo for adult shirts, but it looks great centered on a 2T shirt!

The Onyx shirts also include a tiny version of their signature dot on the back below the collar, so I added that to Dashiell's shirt, too.

I took Dashiell by the office wearing his new shirt -- he was quite the hit. Everyone loved seeing a 2 year old wear their brand. :)  While there I confirmed that it was alright for me to play around with the design and another idea, because I knew what was next...
When Annaliese saw Dashiell's shirt, her first question was, "Where did he get that?" It was quickly followed up with, "I want one, too!"
I felt like for a size 7 shirt though, the logo was too small to be centered and too big to be in the pocket area. So I decided to create an applique design of the Onyx dot and use the already-digitized name in the center, just like their logo:

 We were all pleased with the results!

And here they both are, showing off the back:

 

Now I just need to be sure they have Daddy's business card in their pocket so when someone asks, "What is Onyx?" they can whip one out. :)

When a Nerd Becomes a Dad, again!

Jason and Anna are expecting another boy, and in keeping with all the comic-themed items I stitched when Torin was a baby (see them here, here and here), as well as the shirts they used to announce this pregnancy, this new baby is in need of nerdy items of his own! At this point, we have focused on burp cloths. We will do some other items in the very near future.
Jason requested Golden Age Superhero designs, and after much debate and searching for clear emblems, here's what I created:

I digitized these applique designs myself. Not perfect, but good enough for burp cloths. :)

I did recreate one of Torin's burp cloths exactly the same. Not superhero, but definitely for true sci-fi lovers. Anybody know what show it's making reference to?? One of my all-time favorites... :)

Branding a Bathroom

My dad grew up on a wheat and cattle ranch in Kansas. Post grad school he spent his entire career as a professor at the University of Illinois. He retired in August and my parents moved back to KS after building a new house on Grandma's lot. Mom asked for my help in decorating their downstairs bathroom, and I was thrilled with her idea!
Even though they don't use it any longer, the 7HC brand is registered in my dad's name. They wanted to incorporate the brand into their bathroom decor, so mom sent me an image of the brand and I digitized it.
When they came to visit after Christmas, the first thing I did was stitch the brand design on some hand towels she brought:

This is a picture of the actual brand:

Annaliese was very curious about branding but my explanations hadn't been sufficient, so she got a nice little education from Granddad himself while they were here about how and why they branded cattle back in "the old days."

My mom is going to make a shower curtain for the bathroom. This is her plan:

So I stitched the brand several times on patches which she will trim down to size and piece into the shower curtain at home.

While here, Mom really liked the frame on the hand towels in one of our bathrooms, so I made a couple patches for her which I think she plans to applique on bath towels. The swirl frame is from 8 Claws and a Paw.

When Mom is all done with the bathroom, I'll post pictures of the final product. It was so fun helping them create  unique and meaningful decor!

It's TWO-PERMAN!!!

It's a baby!

No, it's a toddler!

No, it's TWO-PERMAN!!!

Instead of getting all weepy and going on and on about how I cannot believe my son is two years old, let me move directly to his awesome birthday shirt. Dashiell is really into superheros, especially Superman. He has some Superman jammies that he would wear 24/7 if I let him. I needed to get him a Superman shirt, but hadn't seen one locally. Then I realized I could make him one for his birthday! But instead of using the "S" emblem I asked my fabulous husband, Carlin Trammel, to design a symbol with a "2" in it to celebrate his new age. Carlin drew this and emailed it to me. (He drew this on his iPhone. ON HIS iPHONE. Technology is crazy.)

I imported the image into Embird and digitized the design. I have only dabbled in applique designs, but I'm really pleased with how this came out! Before putting it on a shirt, I tested my design on a bib. This will be great for cake pictures.

It turned out well and I proceeded to make Dashiell's shirt:

He LOVES this shirt. I let him wear it Wednesday when we went to the library for story time (since they would sing Happy Birthday to him). He literally cried and screamed when I put his coat on because he didn't want to cover up the symbol. That night he refused to take it off to put on his pajamas and asked to sleep in it. He wore it all the next day as well... I may have to buy 6 more blue shirts so we have one for every day! :)
To finish off the gift, I made Dashiell a Two-perman cape. No pattern, I just winged it!

Here are a few pictures from today. Putting cape on for the first time:

Flying towards the camera

 and showing us the back

What a doll!
Words cannot express how exciting it is to be able to make something that he adores and truly is one of a kind. I've been pretty giddy about it and anxious to write this blog post. :)