Awareness Raggy Patch Hats

This year I was unable to attend our local "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk, but I was able to support a friend! Tarika asked if I could help her team by embroidering hats. She purchased the hats and I made a raggy patch for them that included her team name:

Special thanks to Rachel of EB who modified her free Awareness ribbon for me by converting it to a raggy design. I added the text "Demi Duos" (team name) using 8CP's Kayleigh, which was as close as a match I could find to the font that was printed on their team shirts last year.
I was able to get 6 of these in my 6x10 hoop, so I stitched them all first (hooped tearaway, 2 layers of flannel and one later of gingham on top, a layer of pink floated on the bottom)

Then trimmed them all out and fluffed them up:

Then glued them all down!

Here's a picture of the team from the event taken by the MSABC photographer, Ada Images and Designs (photo used with permission).

This was a fun project to work on and I was delighted to donate my time to a great cause!
However... I'm not really in the business of selling raggy patch hats, so if you are in the market for one, let me give a quick shout out to my friend, Tracy. She answered all my questions and gave me honest feedback when my first patch attempt was too big. :) Her hats are beautiful, click here to see my favorite posted on her fb page Naptime Craft Mommy!

Raggy Patch Monogram Hats

I jumped on the raggy patch monogram ball cap bandwagon a couple weeks ago, and am just now getting around to posting pictures. Still perfecting my technique, but so far I like them!

I digitized a triple bean stitch oval, and used 8CP's Monogram 3 on these three hats. First one for myself:

One for Amanda who taught my children's swim lessons:

And one for Marci who did us a nice favor today :)

And this hat I am SUPER excited to wear LATER THIS WEEK at Applique Getaway!

The coordinators provided an applique design of the logo, and when we arrive with it stitched on an item, we get entered into a drawing for an amazing prize! I decided to put the design on a hat, and I'm hoping the fabric I picked matches my volunteer shirt. I'll find out Friday! EEK! FRIDAY!

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.

Jumping on the $Tree bandwagon

If you do custom embroidery and you are not a part of an online group or forum, you just might be missing out on some awesome ideas! This post is filled with things I've made for my family inspired by other stitchers... FROM DOLLAR TREE! That's right folks, grab a $1 item, add some embroidery, and suddenly you have a boutique item!

First up, place mats. Dollar Tree has these in red, white and blue right now. You can find similar place mats at other locations. They will cost more, and probably have a higher quality, but for us this will do. After looking through all of my 8CP fonts with my daughter trying to find a single font that had:

• a D that was clearly identifiable as D (since Dashiell is VERY into his initial at the moment) 
• a C that was not too feminine
• an A that was pretty and pleased Annaliese
• and a J wasn't boring yet didn't look like an I or a T 

(whew, that's not as easy as you would think!) we settled on Miss Kitty from 8 Claws and a Paw. Honestly it wasn't my first choice (Southern Belle was), but I knew Annaliese would bring it up every time we sat down for dinner, so I went with her first choice. ;) And hey, it was only a $4 experiment!

Next, sunglasses cases! I can't give a source for the font I used for Annaliese, it appeared in my inbox from a friend. :) I love it though, it's like Curlz without the annoying tiny curls! I made Annaliese's a couple weeks ago. Dashiell is starting to notice when I make things for her and not him. This week he told me that he wanted a sunglasses case with his name on it. He insists that his favorite color is dark brown (???) and was quite distraught when I told him that Dollar Tree didn't sell brown sunglasses cases. Oh dear, we talked about this in great length. He finally settled on a blue one with dark brown thread. :) I used Dream from 8CP for his name.

How about a sunhat?? You can find these hats a lots of locations for a variety of prices, but for an experiment for an 8 year old, a $1 hat is PERFECT. I used Pizazz from 8CP to do Annaliese's monogram, and picked purple thread to match her new swimsuit.

Finally, a new beach bag. Dollar Tree is selling these awesome canvas totes! They are a great size and I'm anxious to put it to use.

This design is from Luna Embroidery. LOVE the striped fabric that my mom bought for me when she was here last week!

So what are you waiting for?? Get yourself to a Dollar Tree!!