Onesie for first year portrait

My good friend Terri is a photographer. She has a portrait session today with a little girl who has recently turned one. After seeing Ada's onesie, she requested a onesie for Avery, who will also get to wear Terri's lavender tutu for her picture.

The "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and the font is Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.

The dark purple thread matches better in person, this isn't the best photograph. Can't wait to see Terri's pictures!

First Birthday Shirt

While doing a search for 1st birthday shirts with a bug theme, Christi stumbled upon the shirt I stitched for Will in July. She contacted me about making one for her son Isaac, and I was happy to oblige!

The "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and the font is Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.

A Project Five Years in the Making

Well, really it only took me two hours from start (idea) to finish (shirt). But the reason for this shirt has been five years in the making...

Today my daughter got her long hair cut off for the first time, and donated it to Locks of Love. I stitched this shirt for her to commemorate the event!

The applique numbers are from GG Designs' Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers. I love this sequins material -- isn't it neat?!? (Thanks to Kathy, I have it in about 15 different colors.) The Locks of Love Logo uses the font "First Grader", so I asked Kathy to digitize the text for me (I did the little heart in Love).

And now what you really care about...

BEFORE

AFTER

Riley is One!

First, let's start with the birthday girl, and then we'll discuss her shirt :)

Isn't she precious?!?
Michelle and I had already been discussing what to do for Riley's first birthday onesie, pretty sure we were going to go with an owl theme. Facebook then played a huge role in the production process. I commented on Savvy Stitches' photo, and Michelle noticed that, checked out the picture and immediately sent me a message saying she wanted a design just like it. I had never seen that particular owl before, but I knew Sheila (another one of those "friends I've never met") was starting to digitize herself and it just might be hers. So I sent her a message asking about it. She replied immediately that she was already planning on asking me to test the design for her since she knew I had a thing for owls. WOW talk about a collision of perfectly timed events. :)
Michelle ordered the onesie and skirt from Old Navy and then I got to work. I first of all tested the whole design on a bib, it stitched perfectly, and then I moved onto the onesie.

I used Embird Alphabet #8 for "Look whooo's". The "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and I used the Chez font from 8 Claws and a Paw for her name.

Now, the applique owl design is not yet available. Sheila is busy getting all of her ducks in a row before launching a site (probably this summer). So hang on, it will be available before you know it. Until then, you can become a fan of Savvy Stitches Applique on Facebook. Thanks Sheila for letting me be a tester so I could create this cute shirt for Riley!
UPDATE: you can now find this curious little owl on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/98607269/curious-little-owl-machine-embroidery

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Today we attended a first birthday party, and my gift was a bib for Emily to wear while eating her cake!

Pink ladybug theme, so I merged this together. GG Designs' Chubby Wubby 1, MCA's Ladybug, Jolson's Hand Lettered Floss Stitch font, and one of the flutter trails from That's Sew Grammy's Just Bug Trails set (which is a nice bean stitch, I ended up stitching 2 or 3 times to match the heaving stitching of the floss stitch font).

 

Princess Birthday Shirt

Presley attended a princess themed birthday party recently and needed to take a special gift:

I used the Chubby Wubby applique numbers from GG Designs for the 3, picking a fabric with scattered princessy things. I added the crown with Applique Cafe's Add a Crown design and stitched her name with the Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

I also monogrammed an insert for a little travel mug using the same fabric and font (sorry for the lousy picture):

Reversible Pillowcase Dress

Little Kate's first birthday is this week! Her mommy Rebecca asked if I could make a reversible pillowcase dress for her. I've never done one before and don't have a pattern, but after a little google searching I found a free tutorial to follow. After making a sample and some measurement adjustments, my first one turned out pretty well!


Rebecca did the fabric shopping. She also picked the same embroidery designs that I used on Audrey's 1st birthday dress earlier this year, so that made my job a lot easier!
For the pink side we used a design to celebrate her new age. The "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and the font is Jester from 8 Claws and a Paw.

The green side features her three-letter monogram. I used the Empire font from Embroidery Arts.

I can't wait to see pictures of her in the dress! Have a Happy Birthday, Kate!

Another First Birthday outfit

Rachel enjoyed having a special first birthday shirt for Tre to wear at his party, so she asked me to make something special for her little friend Kate whose first birthday party is today.

Kate's party is a farm theme. I sent Rachel a link to some cute farm designs I have, but we couldn't figure out how to incorporate the fact that it was her first birthday into those designs. So I told her what I was doing for Ada. She liked that idea and we decided to look for some farm-themed fabric for the applique.

Most of the farm prints I found had a motif that was too large to fit in the "1". I bought the cow print thinking it was pretty cute. Rachel agreed, but wasn't sure what color shirt to use, since we wanted to use red for her name.

This is where J.J. (her husband) steps in on the scene. He thought it would really be cute to put the cow print 1 and red-lettered Kate on the front of a pair of overalls. I thought denim was a perfect solution for the background of our design!

It is very hard to find little girl denim items that do not already have embroidery on it. I stopped by our local used clothing boutique and was thrilled to find this Old Navy jumper with no embroidery!

The plan: take off the pocket, embroider the design, and ta-da! Adorable outfit super quick.

Uhhhhhh... not so much. Look what I found when I took the pocket off:

I guess all the fading took place after the jumper was constructed. Now it was going to be WAY obvious that a pocket had been there. So I emailed Rachel with my bad news that this jumper wasn't going to work and we needed a new plan. (We are now down to under a week left before the big party).

Creative J.J. saves the day again. He suggested stitching the design on some suede and appliqueing that onto the jumper, covering the whole top panel. I thought that was yet again another great idea. Rachel bought the suede and I got to work. Here's the final product, and I think it turned out really cute!

As in Ada's design, the "1" is from GG Designs' Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers and "Kate" is stitched with Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.


Rachel got a red shirt for Kate to wear underneath the jumper. If I get a picture of Kate in her jumper, I'll add it later.

Throughout this process, Carlin said I may have to change my blog name. Maybe "Stitched by Janay, Inspired by J.J." ?? He's one of the creative mind behind Jackson's crayon tool belt. These two keep me on my toes, that's for sure. Next time I'm faced with a stitching dilemma or need inspiration, I'm calling J.J.!

First Birthday Shirt

Kimberly contacted me through facebook and asked if I could make her son a birthday shirt like a couple I had posted in my birthday attire photo album.

The applique "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and I stitched "Bryson" across it using the Whoa Nelly font from 8 Claws and a Paw. She requested this bug material -- I think he is having a bug themed party!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

This may look familiar, but I promise you haven't seen it on my blog before! Earlier in the year I made a birthday shirt for a Nathan who turned three, and I recently did another! While the first one was a cowboy theme, this little Nathan had a farm themed party. He is particularly fond of black and white cows, so I created this:

The "3" is from GG Designs' Chubby Wubby Numbers. The cow is from Designs by JuJu's Barnyard Buddies set, and I added his name with the Clay font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

For those of you who do custom embroidery (and my friends who just can't get enough of my wordiness, ha!) let me explain what I do when I create a look by overlapping designs. I like to do some design editing in my software beforehand. First of all I needed to modify the precious cow from DBJJ. This was for a boy, so the flowers had to go. For space reasons I decided to remove the appliqué grass patch as well.  Nathan loves black and white cows, so within Embird I changed the colors to give his mommy an accurate preview before stitching.

Once I merged that on top of the appliqué 3, I removed the unnecessary zigzag stitches on the 3 that would be under the cow. That's relatively easy and quick to do in Embird. However, I don't bother changing the placement and tack down stitches -- that's too much work!

Instead I did creative cutting in the hoop, since I knew the red fabric on the bottom would show through the white fabric on top. I ran the placement, tackdown, and modified zigzag stitches for the "3". Then I ran the placement stitch for the cow and removed my hoop from the machine.

I trimmed out the part of the 3 that would be under the cow:

Oops, I used red thread for my placement stitches, and it WILL show through my white fabric! So I picked those stitches out, too. Note to self -- use white thread for placement stitches next time. It's a little extra work, but worth the effort! That cow is a bright white without any discoloration!

Here's a case in point from two past projects -- Without trimming away overlapped fabric:

Trimming away the overlapped fabric:

See how much better the flower looks when the fabric underneath is trimmed away? Just a little detail that I like to keep in mind. I didn't notice the problem on the first shirt until it was done.  I'm always trying to improve my final product!

Happy 4th Birthday, Chloe!

I can hardly believe I typed that title. FOUR. Where does time go?!
I made something special for Chloe's first, second and third birthdays, so when Jenn asked if I had time in my "not accepting orders" fall to make Chloe's fourth birthday shirt, of course I said yes. :)

This project has a bit of a social media story.
Remember Riley's first birthday shirt? I tested that curious owl for Sheila of Savvy Stitches before it's release. Fast forward a couple months... and Sheila shares this adorable picture on her Facebook page. I was the first to comment, and the way Facebook works... :) I almost immediately got a message from my friend Jenn asking if I could make something similar for Chloe. I said I could make a similar shirt (since I already had), BUT the skirt was another story. I have just not mastered the art of garment construction. After my last reversible A-line/JonJon set I have learned to say no instead of stress myself out.

Unbeknownst to me Jenn ordered the skirt directly from babe-a-gogo! She then sent it to me with a blank shirt to do a design for Chloe. I used the same color palette to match the skirt, but selected different fonts. This may shock faithful readers, but I did NOT use Chubby Wubby numbers from GG Designs! :) This applique 4 is from 8 Claws and a Paw's Chatty Applique, and the text is done with Candi, also from 8CP. I picked my pink chevron print to emulate the wavy lines on the belly of the owl in the fabric (also why I deleted the wings, and used aqua for the eyes and legs).

Since I personally didn't purchase the skirt, I can't leave feedback on Etsy, so let me do it here: babe-a-gogo does FANTASTIC work! The skirt is darling and so well constructed. Seeing the skirt in person confirms that I should not be in the business of making precious twirl skirts. (Especially comparing it to the one I made for Annaliese recently.) So if you like this outfit, hop on over to her shop and check it out. You can order the whole shebang from her because remember (in theory) I am not taking orders. At least I'm trying...

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Dashiell's buddy Nathan had his third birthday party today -- a Rootin' Tootin' party out at a corral! I had the pleasure of making the birthday boy a special shirt to wear:

Pardon his squinty face -- in order to get a good shot of his shirt with my iPhone, he had to face the sun. I should have grabbed his cowboy hat! :) Oh, and while I'm at it, let me add that this was taken at the END of the party. After horse riding, hay riding and cake eating. Look at how clean that shirt is!! I'm totally impressed. :)

About the design...
Even though I own a ton of Planet Applique's specialty fonts, I do not own the one with the cowboy hat. So I just made up my own, and I'm thrilled with the results. I combined my three favorite things:
1. GG Design's Chubby Wubby Numbers
2. Applique designs from Lynnie Pinnie -- both the cowboy hat and boots are hers. They are designed to use two fabrics but for simplicity I just used one, a neat suede-like material.
3. Fonts from 8 Claws and a Paw -- this one is Hoedown.

Matching Outfits for the Birthday Twins

Tori has wanted me to make her twins matching outfits for quite a while, and we finally decided to target their third birthday. Are they really three years old, already?!?  It doesn't seem that long ago when I attended Tori's baby shower and she got these gifts.
I used Martha Pullen's reversible patterns, modifying them somewhat. Noa is tall for her age, so I used a size three, but made it the same length as a size 4. Since we are headed into cooler months, I extended the shortall to a longall for Julian. I'll be honest, I just winged it (on a sample first) and I'm pretty impressed that it worked! :)
Side One: Plaid with three-letter monograms

This corduroy is courtesy of Sandy, who recently gave me tons of fabric left from her days of making clothes for her kids. I think it looks great for winter! I used the Circle Monogram Set 3 from Embroidery Arts.

Side two was a bit more challenging, but in the end I think it turned out fantastic! I had purchased some brown fabric with dots that I thought was cute.  But as I cut it out, I realized Tori's kids have slightly different skin tone than my kids and probably don't wear all brown. :)  So Tori and I met at JoAnns and looked around. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find a print that works for both a boy and a girl! We finally settled on a solid corduroy for Julian and an adorable print corduroy for Noa.

For the embroidery, I stitched an applique "3" using Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and stitched their names across it using the Whoa Nelly font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whew, I'm glad these are done. And now that they are, I'm going to make a declaration:
I'm never making an A-line or JonJon again. :)
I have loved the outcome of every single one I have made, but the reality is I am not getting any faster at this. I wouldn't feel comfortable charging my friends what I need to in order to make it worth my time. So I'm sticking to embroidery on ready-to-wear items, and my new found love for reversible pillowcase dresses. Sorry boys, you are out of luck.

100th Day of School!

Today is the 100th Day of School in Leon County. That's a big deal in kindergarten, so to help Annaliese celebrate, I made her a special shirt. :)

The shirt is the last long-sleeved one I have in my stash from Grandma. Annaliese just got some new striped leggings, so we picked the silver and red to match. I used Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and added the text with Embird Alphabet #8.

Here's my excited girl, ready to celebrate!

Birthday Shirts

These are a couple birthday shirts I made in the fall, and busyness prevented me from blogging about them.
Sue asked me to make a third birthday shirt for her grandson who is really into trains:

I used Applique Cafe's Christmas train, but I removed the tree and added an applique 3 from Embroidery Boutique's Tiny Applique Alphabet.

I got an email from Kelly who had found a picture of Jillian in her birthday shirt on my friend's blog (Pirates-n-Princesses) about Jillian's Dora and Boots birthday party. Kelly asked if I could recreate the look, and I was happy to oblige!

The "3" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and the font is Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.