Shirt to match leggings

Annaliese ended up with three pairs of striped leggings from Old Navy. We both love them a lot. While we were home for Christmas, Kathy and I tag-teamed a shirt to match her navy and aqua striped leggings (I'll post pics as soon as I remember to take them).

Last week Annaliese decided she wanted to wear her pink and gray striped leggings. The only t-shirt I had that matched was a plain gray shirt. When I showed it to her she said, "There's nothing on it!" and proceeded to pick out a whole new outfit. So embellishing that t-shirt quickly went on my to-do list. While I was searching through designs, Annaliese said she wanted a bunny. I remembered a cute applique bunny from Embroidery Library. When I pulled up the animal set to show her, she changed her mind and picked the lamb instead. Lucky for me, a couple days later the set was a part of the stitcher's showcase and was 40% off! So for $3 I got all five designs.


I used a piece of the minkee that I bought for Naomi's blanket for the applique patch. The final product is cute, but I learned a few things. Next time I applique minkee, I will use a contrasting thread for the tackdown stitch. I used white thread on the white minkee, and it was challenging to see where to trim amidst the fluff! I had to do some careful trimming once I was done because some of it poked through the satin stitches.
All in all a cute project, Annaliese was pleased and now she can wear her leggings with a shirt that has "something on it." :)

Next up... a Valentine's Tee to match the cranberry and pink striped leggings.

Monogrammed Aprons

Valerie's girls received these aprons as Christmas gifts. The aprons already had the darling gingerbread man on them, as well as the green stitching around the pockets. Valerie asked me to add their names, but not wanting to add to my pre-Christmas work load, she graciously waited until now to give them to me. :)


Valerie, too, picked my new font. I used Embird Alphabet #8 to add their names to the aprons. Determining placement of the names was interesting... In a perfect world, the center of the gingerbread man and the center of the pocket would actually be in the center of the apron. But those didn't actually lined up. So I settled with using the center of the apron, parallel to the pocket. So if it looks like the name and the gingerbread man aren't lined up, it's because they aren't! :)

Sabrina's baby gift order

Sabrina's best friend is having a baby, so she requested a yellow/pink set including a bib and two pacifier clips. "BB" is Sabrina's nickname for the baby, so that makes it extra personalized! :)

I recently got a couple more font options, so Sabrina is one of the first to pick Embird Alphabet #8. I love this font! I used it on one other order last week, and plan to use it again today!

Going big time, shipping international!!

Hee, hee...

Siena (and her parents) liked her hooded toddler towel so much that they ordered one for her cousin's birthday. Rowan lives in Scotland, so I shipped internationally for the first time!

Special Deliveries!

This week I had a couple orders for the Special Delivery onesies. Michelle ordered one for a co-worker:


Here are the two Rachel ordered for friends from school, my first non-Tallahassee designs!

Too busy to update!

Well, it may seem to my faithful readers that I have taken the week off. Actually, I've been so busy filling orders this week that I haven't taken the time to update my blog! Virtually all of the items my friends ordered were gifts, so as I get permission from them to post, I will update my blog.

Before launching into that, though...

I realized this morning that I never posted a project I worked on when we were home for Christmas. Kathy let me use her embroidery machine to stitch out a few Sewing For Sarah rolls that I cannot do -- they require a larger stitch field than I have on my machine. Let me repeat, I cannot make these for you unless you pay me to go back home to IL. And believe me, that would be cheaper than buying me a machine with a 6x10 stitch field, but I would acceptable that solution, too, if you are so inclined. :)

I used Kathy's machine to make Annaliese a new matching set of coloring utensil rolls. One holds 8 markers, one holds 12 crayons, and the other holds 8 colored pencils (which I can do on my machine).

This time instead of using ribbon for a tie closure or making an embroidered velcro closure, I used ponytail holders. These are the cheap kind, so they are extra stretchy, making it easy for Annaliese to pull off and on herself.


I did stitch out a few extras while I was there. Kylie and Kenzie got a set of marker and pencil rolls to go with the crayon rolls I made them in July to match their tote bags. And I have two more marker rolls reserved for a friend who expressed interest. If she doesn't want them, they'll be up for grabs! Sorry I didn't get more made while we were in IL... I was having too much fun making my first A-Line dress!

Keep in mind that I CAN make a crayon roll for 8/9 crayons, an 8-pencil roll, a 4-marker roll, and a 6-toddler crayon or chalk roll. Lots of options for what can go inside, and now three options for closing them, tie a ribbon bow, personalized velcro closure, or a ponytail holder!

Can't leave out Tre!!

I mentioned in my last post that the Monogrammed Burp Cloth using the Dot Alphabet has become my consistent gift for all the new babies, but I realized the first baby of this round at church didn't get one! Rachel wanted to keep the gender of her baby a surprise, so baby Tre didn't end up with any monogrammed gifts from me. That was rectified this morning!

My goal in May or June is to get a big group shot of all the moms, babies and burp cloths. What are the odds I can get all 7 moms/8 babies together at the same time and remember my camera?!?

Kenia's Baby Shower Gift

Today was baby shower #5 at church! Kenia is expecting a baby girl. Big sister Roberta likes purple, so Kenia suggested focusing on pink for baby Alina. I took a blanket buddy, 2 burp cloths and a pacifier clip as my gift.

Baby Alina is the recipient of my first Blanket Buddy. The design came from Sewing For Sarah. I first took a 40" square of flannel and hemmed it using my rolled hem foot (that's one of the coolest feet ever!). Then I stitched out the design following her directions. It worked perfectly!

When I made Alina's pacifier clip, I stitched an extra piece of ribbon so I could personalize the Blanket Buddy, too.

Next up is what has become my signature gift, a monogrammed burp cloth using the Dot Alphabet and Acadian fonts, both free designs on Sew Forum. I had fun trying to match threads to the cute polka dot ribbon.

For the other burp cloth I modified a design from Perfect Little Stitches. It only had the circle design of boys and girls holding hands; I added the text with Embird Alphabet #22. In case you can't read it, the inside circle says, "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and the outside continues the lyrics, "All the Children of the World, Red & Yellow, Black & White, they are Precious in His Sight!" I was pleased with how this turned out, especially stitching the children with variegated thread.

Monogramming a bag

Tiffany asked me to to monogram a bag she bought for a friend. I don't have an industrial type machine, so I couldn't hoop the bag and monogram it directly in the position she wanted. Instead I did an applique patch (same method as I used for Roberta's bag) and hand stitched it in place. I used Embird Alphabet #17 for the letters.

Daisha's Baby Shower Gift

Today was the fourth baby shower of our current baby boom at church. I've known it was coming (obviously...) so I've had ideas churning in my head for a while, but with the holidays and travel, I wasn't able to actually start until a couple days ago. Thankfully I was able to narrow down my ideas and get it all done in time! Here's what I came up with, details below:

About a month ago I was over at Daisha's and got to see the fabric she had purchased to make the bedding for little Naomi. She gave me some swatches so I could try to coordinate. She is also using some adorable frog prince decorations, tying together the acronym FROG="Fully Relying On God" with the idea that God will provide Naomi with her future prince. I loved that concept and decided I needed to incorporate it somehow. Here's the picture of Naomi's crib that Daisha sent me Thursday night:

I used an applique frog design from Hatched In Africa's Funky Frogz designs. I added a crown to make him a frog prince.

I used Embird Alphabet #33 to add the text to another square.

So the front is a 4-patch of flannel, the back is super soft minkee-like fabric, and there are loops of satin ribbon around the edge to make it a multi-sensory lovey.


I wish my blog included feel-o-vision, because it's SO SOFT! :) I don't think the colors are a perfect match, but I was pleased with the results. Minkee isn't the easiest thing to work with, but I learned a lot, and the next one should go more smoothly.

I used the ever-popular Dot Alphabet for a monogram, adding "naomi" in Acadian font, both free designs from Sew Forum. I used threads to match her bedding, but couldn't find any ribbon that worked well, so I didn't add that. Maybe if Daisha has some left over fabric or trim we can spice it up even more...


Next is a burp cloth that Daddy will be proud to use among all the pinks and purples. JR is a huge Orioles baseball fan, so I used the baseball sucker holder designs from Embroidery Garden (a freebie on her yahoo group) and added the text with Embird Alphabet #2. Carlin helped me out on this one. I wasn't going to actually do the applique since it was a white ball on a white cloth diaper. But when I showed Carlin the design on screen, he ran to get his baseball and showed me the color and texture. So I dug through my stash and found a heavy linen fabric that worked really well. I'm glad I asked his opinion!

JR and Daisha also get to do some research for me. Last time I ordered cloth diapers from Stitched and Stamped, she was running low on the infant size and substituted the regular sized cloth diapers instead. They are significantly bigger, so now I can get input on which size is really best for future purchases.

And finally, a pacifier clip. Doesn't match anything else, but is bright and girly!


The fifth shower is in a week, so back to the sewing machine!