Turning Hand-Me-Down Skirt into Outfit!

Last week I was going through some hand-me-downs and found this skirt:

I immediately remembered a free design I had downloaded from Sew Forum. So I picked up a $3 shirt at Wal-Mart, grabbed the pink fabric from my scraps and (with Annaliese's help) picked my three threads. Then I got to stitching. Now she has a perfectly coordinated outfit, including a beautiful bow that Valerie had already made for Annaliese to go with a different outfit. All for $3!! This is so fun!!

A Case of "The Flower Colors Are Too Perfect"

Well... here's an embroidery project that I'm not overly thrilled with. Annaliese decided she wanted the A to be yellow versus green, and I thought that'd be just fine, pulling out the yellow in the flowers on the dress. Then we picked the threads for the embroidery flower and leaves to match those on the dress. Hmmm... they are such a perfect match that the flower just blends in... I wish I had reversed the pinks! Oh well... at least this was another hand-me-down dress, so no money wasted! We'll see what Annaliese thinks when she wakes up from her nap.

Embellishing Hand-Me-Downs

This weekend I took the opportunity to embellish some hand-me-downs. These are the BEST things to practice on:
*I didn't pay for them
*if I mess up, I'm not wasting brand-new clothing
*if they turn out well, I've been successful in giving new life to something old!

The first was this adorable little dress. I love the print at the bottom, but it had a tacky little bow stitched on under the neckline. So I took it off and added this redwork butterfly. I choose an orange thread to match the fabric ruffle at the bottom. Unfortunately the dress is too small for Annaliese, so I plan to give it to Kenzie, who is a year younger.


The second was this little striped shirt. I decided to try a fringed applique design on it. It turned out cute and really jazzed up a boring, slightly faded shirt!

Today's Shirts

Today I spent Annaliese's nap time embroidering shirts!

The first is a T-shirt for Annaliese. Earlier in the week we bought a cute white skirt, so I decided to use all white for this lacy monogram A. I used a metallic thread for her name. That was a booger to work with -- the thread broke at least 5 times! Maybe I need to change some settings...? Anyway, it washed well. On Sunday I'll get a picture of Annaliese modeling it.


Next is a hand-me-down shirt that I decided to add an image to. Annaliese selected the kite design (of a couple options). I found threads that matched the stitching on the sleeves (as best possible with my small selection). It turned out cute and maybe now she'll be more excited about wearing it!


The final one is a gift for Grant's first birthday. I've had a hard time deciding what to put on his shirt, but today I found a free bubble design which is perfect because his nickname is Bubbles!! My only regret is that I picked a shirt with navy accents, not realizing I don't own any navy thread yet. :( But it's cute anyway. Hopefully he and his mommy Carla will like it!