Having a HOOT!

Ok, this requires a bit of a story. For Annaliese's birthday she got to go to Build-A-Bear for the first time, and made April the Panda, dressed in a ballerina outfit. In June we made a return trip for a new outfit, beach gear. Recently she said she wanted to go back and get regular clothes. We decided to take Annaliese on a surprise trip to Build-A-Bear before school starts. Now, once we got inside she started to get distracted by the Disney Princess costumes, the pajamas and robes... but I was on a mission to find a "regular" outfit. Sadly she is already at the point that if I suggest something she immediately comes up with reasons NOT to do it, so I had to find something "perfect" that I could convince her to choose. When I saw this shirt:

I knew it was the one. Cute because it was pink and purple, and it would be a great back-to-school outfit for April because it has an owl on it (Annaliese's school mascot). I also enthusiastically told her I already had a purple shirt and a new owl design so I could make her a matching shirt. That cinched it! We got the shirt, a matching pink corduroy skirt, back pack and tennis shoes.

We get home, I grab Annaliese's shirt (which is actually lavender) and head to my computer to show her the owl design. It doesn't actually match as well as I remembered. Annaliese and I tried to figure out how to incorporate the stripes at the bottom. I came up with a solution and she was satisfied...

... but I wasn't. I decided to go all out and try to match it as exactly as I could by digitizing my own applique owl! I did it all myself! (Except for the feet -- I realized this morning that I forgot to do those and knew Annaliese would point out they were missing, so I borrowed them from another owl design.) I finished digitizing it last night, and this morning I bought a new shirt that was a closer match than the lavender one.

Are you still with me? Ready to see???

This is the most complicated applique design I've digitized so far, and overall I'm pretty pleased. On this shirt I'm most disappointed with the lettering... I don't know why the text at the top didn't turn out as nicely as usual. Oh well. I used Embird Alphabets #38 and #8.

Annaliese was excited to see the final product. She didn't know I had worked on a different owl design that matched exactly. She's all set to wear this on the second day of school, but was willing to try it on quickly so I could take a picture and blog. How accommodating. :)


Side note:
April's Having a Hoot Shirt: $6
Annaliese's Having a Hoot Shirt: $3.50 + lots of labor :)
April's pink skirt: $6
Annaliese's pink skirt: under $3 on clearance last year.
April's tennis shoes: $8
Annaliese's tennis shoes (after BOGO at Payless) $7.50

Hmmmmm... does that seem right to you??
Annaliese's backpack did cost more. Her's was $10, April's was only $5. :)