Yeehaw! Kendal is Two!

We are disappointed we can't make it to Kendal's Shindig this weekend, but that didn't stop me from making a cute shirt for her to wear :)

The applique 2 is from GG's Chubby Wubby Numbers. I borrowed the hat from 8CP's Cowgirl 1 Applique and added her name with 8CP's Clay.

To Infinithree, and Beyond!

My little buddy Maddox had a Toy Story themed third birthday party today, and I was absolutely delighted to make this shirt for him!

The Space Explorer Cutie is from Lynnie Pinnie. I used 8CP's Pops to add his name. Adorable right? The only thing that could make it cuter is Maddox wearing it! :)

Riley is Two!

Even though I've done quite a bit of stitching for little Riley, it's hard to believe she is already two!

 When Michelle asked me to make her birthday shirt, she specifically requested the Split Numbers from Savvy Stitches Applique. I used 8CP's Mandi to add her name.

Spiderweb Applique font!!

I don't use designs of licensed characters, so I'm always on the look out for ways to create personalized items for kids that coordinate with their party themes or favorite things yet don't break copyright rules. Since my little guy is a Spider-Man fan, I requested an applique font with a web inside from 8 Claws and a Paw, and did they deliver!! Isn't this cute?!

I used a nice red Kona cotton. I got it wet and dried it with my iron to tighten up the weave. Then I applied Heat-N-Bond Lite and got to work. I had no puckering at all as the web stitched. It was perfect! The set includes numbers, which will be perfect for birthday shirts.

But WAIT there is more!!
If you buy the applique set this week, you get a Spidey embroidery font for free!
I was so excited to wake up this morning and discover that news, so I did something I've never done before... I rehooped a shirt to add a name! And this is a shirt that has already been washed and worn a couple of times. I'm sure there are lots of ways to do this, but here's what I did... I merged together the applique D and his name in Embird (had to reduce his name to 80% because dang, he has a long name). Once I got everything positioned exactly as I wanted it to appear on the shirt I deleted everything from the D except the placement stitch.

On the actual shirt I fused a strip of polymesh where the name was going to go

Then I hooped sticky stabilizer and ran the placement stitch for the D

I used that to position my shirt on the hoop, I lined up the completed applique perfectly on top of the placement stitch.

I smoothed it out, floated a piece of tearaway underneath, pinned a piece of Solvy on top, and stitched the name. Voila! Name with Spidey font added!

My little guy was NOT in the mood to take pictures again. And it's a dreary morning, so I can't get any good natural light pictures. But I was anxious to show it off, so you take what you can get. ;)

Thanks Julie, it's SPECTACULAR! :)

Baby boy gift set

Martha and Maggie also requested items for a relative who just had a baby boy! It's been a while since I've done a larger gift set, this was fun to do!

For the burp cloths they requested a couple with a wild animal theme and one with honey bees. The lion is from DBJJ's Noah and Friends set. I added Mark's name with 8CP's Faron.

 

The monkey is also from that DBJJ set. I added his name with 8CP's Dora's Boots.

The Behive alphabet is from East Coast Applique. I did some design editing and just used one big piece of fabric instead of doing the raggy stripes as it's designed (you can see my other project with the font here, it's cute both ways!) I couldn't find that same set of scraps in my stash, and frankly I was pressed for time. :) I love how this fabric worked for the beehive though! Added his name with Jolson's Hand Lettered Floss Stitch font.

They had also purchased a sweet little outfit (which I failed to get a picture of in it's entirety) that I monogrammed with Embroidery Arts' Circle 3:

And this blanket, with my favorite, 8CP's Whoa Nelly. I hope I never fall out of love with this font!

Baby girl gift set

Martha asked me to make a little gift set for a family near and dear to her heart. She requested a burp cloth, monogrammed blanket and bloomers. No specific theme, so I got to do my own thing. I decided to take the opportunity to test this new Princess Carriage design from Lynnie Pinnie. Didn't it turn out pretty? I used 8CP's Going to Disney font to add her name. (And for the record, this is a larger/more involved design than I usually put on burp cloths, like I said, I was killing two birds with one stone, Everly lucked out. :) )

Martha supplied the blanket and bloomers, I added the monogram. I used 8CP's Sweet Tarts, I LOVE this font! Isn't it lovely? And Everly Rose is such a pretty name.

Taste and See

Our congregation is hosting a Ladies Retreat this weekend and I was asked to donate a door prize. The theme is Keeping it Simple and Sweet, they are decorating with cupcakes... so I immediately thought of this design and decided to make a Stay-Put towel!

The Cupcake Psalm design is from the Itch 2 Stitch.

My Stay Put towel is loosely inspired by the Topsy Towel tutorial posted on Embroidery Library. In this case I did not applique a square of fabric, nor did I square up the towel. There is a free V-shaped buttonhole design posted on Sew Forum that goes with this tutorial. If you are not a member of SF, it is free to join.

Edited to add:
Kimberly asked to see this in the hoop. Obviously it's too late to take that picture :) I'll do that on the next towel. But here's a screen shot of my embroidery design file. I hoop sticky stabilizer, run a placement stitch line at the bottom, place my towel on the hoop using the line as my guide, float a piece of tearaway on the bottom, return to machine to stitch the V-shaped hole and design! My secret for perfect design placement :)

First Birthday Shirts

Recently I've had the pleasure of making several birthday shirts for little friends. Today I'll share a couple First Birthday designs!
Grayson's mommy requested a cupcake with a #1 candle and her name. I was delighted to use this adorable design from GG Designs (I love her number candle cupcakes!) I added her name with 8CP's Jingle.

Annabelle's mommy requested simply a #1 candle. I used 8CP's Applique Birthday Candle Number, and added her name with Embird Alphabet #7 (to match a bib set I made last year).

Monogramming for friend's sewing projects

Purely out of curiosity, I spent some free time over the last few days figuring out how many different fonts from 8 Claws and a Paw I have used. At least 119, can you believe it?! I'm going to keep a running track of them on my Facebook page.

In the process I realized I never blogged about these projects! My friend and best customer Michelle made some baby gifts herself last fall. I played a small role... I monogrammed the fabric first before she constructed the burp cloths. Didn't these turn out cute?

I used 8CP's Lucille for Lilly's three-letter monogram (her name was done with Candi)

 For the boys, I used Whoa Nelly for their name and monogram.

All the fabric was from a couple of Riley Blake lines, and I think she used this tutorial for the contoured burp cloths.

Box Font birthday shirts for boys

It's time for Jimmie's birthday again! He's having a Thomas party and requested Itch 2 Stitch's Box Font Number 4 with Thomas fabric. I added his name with 8CP's Tiny font.

It turned out so well that I decided to use the same idea for Jackson, my son's little buddy whose Cars themed party was yesterday. I used the Box Font 5 with I2S's Barnyard font for his name. He LOVED it and was quite proud to wear it all day. Warms my heart. :)

Quick comparison picture to show you how I improved on an earlier experiment. My very first project with I2S's Box font was Dashiell's shirt, but honestly while I loved the idea of combining the Lightning McQueen fabric with the checkered flag fabric, it was too busy and his name got lost. Going with solid black for Jackson was definitely an improvement!

Using a fabric with a printed motif can be tricky... let me show you how I figured out what to do. I draped the fabric over my computer screen where I could see the embroidery design, and get my fabric perfectly placed:

 Then I take a picture of it with my phone and pull it into Photoshop. I do some rough, and I mean ROUGH painting to see if I like what I see. :)  If so, then I use a water soluble marking pen on the fabric so I can line up the fabric with the placement lines at the embroidery machine.

 

Here's the preview image I sent for Jimmie's design. This literally was the ONLY fabric position where I could get all the Thomas images facing up.

You can really make fabric work for you in an applique design with just a little extra effort!