My Real Live Groovy Girl!

Annaliese has several Groovy Girls. One day last summer she made it her goal to dress up like one of them. Later in the fall I discovered there was one named Analise! I ordered it for her for Christmas, and my plan was to make a matching outfit for her. I gathered all my supplies, but ran out of time to have it wrapped under the tree. While home for Christmas my mom helped with the shirt, and this weekend I FINALLY embellished the matching capris. Annaliese is so excited to match her doll!

My mom helped a lot on the shirt. Ummmm... actually she did all the real work. :) I bought a t-shirt at Goodwill for $1, the zebra fabric and sequins material were already in my stash. Mom modified the neckline and added the material for me. The purple clip-on hair is from Claire's.

That was completed in December. My job was to recreate Analise's capris when I got home. Ten weeks later... The main reason it took so long is because I wanted to digitize the design on Analise's pant leg. Even though that would take time, I knew it would be faster than searching for a pre-existing embroidery design that would be close enough. This weekend I finally made the time to digitize it. This is the design on the pants of the Analise doll...

... and this is the applique design I digitized to match! WOO-HOO! I'm so proud of myself!

The curves could be smoother, but for my 5 year old's costume, it's good enough! I learned a lot in the process and really enjoyed doing it.
So to actually complete Annaliese's capris, I took a pair of pants that were in my stash from what Kathy sent us a couple years ago, chopped them off, added the embroidery design, and stitched strips of the sequins material around the edge.

Thankfully the Analise Groovy Girl came barefoot so I didn't have to go find and purchase matching shoes. As it stands, the purple hair was the most expensive part of this costume! :)

Baby Shower gift

Today some of the young mamas at church had a shower for Amanda, who is expecting a baby boy. I had a lot of fun making this gift!
Baby Nolan will make sweet Emeline a big sister, so I made them matching shirts.

I LOVE THESE. AREN'T THEY ADORABLE???
The BIG SIS/LIL BRO designs are from Five Star Fonts. I've had them for almost a year but hadn't stitched them yet. I intended to make shirts for my kids, but haven't gotten around to it...
For Emeline's shirt, I used two different colors of the sequins material. It's so sparkly and shiny, I just love it! Nolan's design only came as a filled stitch design since it's so much smaller. That's ok, I doubt daddy would let him wear sequins. HA!
I added their names below the sis/bro designs using the Montana font from 8 Claws and a Paw.




The other thing I stitched for Nolan was something I've been planning to do for a long time. In fact, one night I thought to myself, "When Amanda has another baby I know exactly what I'm going to make as a gift." and the next morning I found out she was expecting! Here's what I've been planning for several months:

Matt is a builder/roofer, so when I got this adorable tool belt applique design from DigiStitches, I knew it'd be a perfect baby gift for them. I used a brown suede-like material for the belt, and added "Daddy's Helper" with Embird Alphabet #14.

(The infant overall romper is from Dharma Trading, something I've had in my stash since Carla and I ordered stuff for our kids fall 2007.)

Happy Birthday, Abby!

Annaliese's buddy Abby is having a birthday party today!
When we first met Abby in the summer, she really liked Annaliese's pony dress, so all along I figured I'd eventually stitch a pony for Abby. When I asked Rebekah what she would want as a gift, she was pretty certain it would be a pony shirt. Abby specifically requested a pink unicorn with purple hair and a gold horn. Hey fans, does that sound familiar?? That's exactly what Kenzie wanted on her dress! No wonder all these girls are such good friends. :)
Here's what I came up with:

I didn't want to do the exact same design as Kenzie's, so I looked through all the Pretty Ponies appliques from Designs by JuJu, and found a different pony that I could stick the horn on to make a unicorn. Annaliese helped me pick the pink and purple fabrics... turns out we picked the exact same ones that Kenzie did. :)
I added Abby's name with 8 Claws and a Paw's Lizzy Font.

Another Springwood Owl

Well, the day Annaliese and Mrs. Corrigan wore their matching owl shirts to school, Mrs. Daniels (speech teacher who does activities in the classroom on Fridays) said she had to have one. A couple weeks later she brought me a prewashed blank shirt, and today I delivered it back to her, with an applique Sly Owl from Tigerlilyhill Embroidery Designs.

I am now out of one of these turquoise fabrics and haven't settled on a good replacement. I need to do that fast because once a few teachers roam the school with these adorable shirts, I may have a slew of orders on my hands. Hope my kids stay healthy the rest of the spring in case that happens!

Marker Purse

Jenn requested a marker purse for Chloe. I used the 5x7 Marker Roll design from Sewing for Sarah, but moved the ribbon tackdown stitches to the top and duplicated it so this purse would have a handle. The front side holds four markers:

The back side has a pocket to hold a little note pad or stickers or whatever else Chloe wants to tote around. I used the Chez font from 8 Claws and a Paw to stitch her name.

Wish I could see her use it in person, but alas, I had to ship it to Oklahoma. :(

St. Patrick's Day Towels for Moms

These towels are the next installment of the holiday towels I'm stitching for our moms as part of their Christmas present.

The applique shamrock is from Embroidery Boutique. I used Embird Alphabet #37 for their names, thought the Celtic look was appropriate!


When I'm all done with the set, I'll have one of them take a group shot. For now I'll just include links to the previous towels:
Christmas towel
Valentine's Day towel

Baby Girl shower gift

Michelle requested a couple items for a baby shower gift.
The monogram on the burp cloth is from the Dot Alphabet at Julia's Needle Designs, and I stitched "ryleigh" with Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Baby Ryleigh is making Madison a big sister, so she needs a special shirt!


The text came from a free design posted on Sew Forum (no longer available), and the face is "Girl 3" from a design set from Embroidery Library.

Support the Marines!!

My baby brother (who isn't a baby anymore) is heading into his final week of Marine boot camp. In anticipation of a trip to San Diego for graduation, his girlfriend Tiffany asked me to stitch a shirt for her. She wanted an awareness ribbon with the text "I support my Marine" as well as his graduation details (platoon and date).

The applique awareness ribbon is a freebie from Embroidery Boutique. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #16.

And she wanted me to stitch this on the back of her shirt. :)

Spring Dresses

Valerie ordered a couple Short Sleeve Ruffle Dresses from Dharma Trading for me to applique designs on for her girls for spring time. The girls spent some time looking through my blog to come up with ideas, and then we got together to develop a plan.
Kenzie knew right away what she wanted -- a unicorn, pink body, purple hair, gold horn. That was easy!

The unicorn is from the Pretty Ponies applique set from Designs by JuJu.

Kylie had lots of ideas, so we spent time together on my laptop looking at designs. I completely understand -- it's hard to pick sometimes! She settled on these hearts:

Also from Designs by JuJu, this design is from the Simply Hearts Applique set. She selected these fabrics from my stash of pinks and reds.

Anxious to see them on the girls. Maybe pictures will be posted on Facebook later...