Burp Cloths, part Deux

I found a picture of the applique I did with an "R" fro Rachel. I cheated a little on the design--I used the applique function within the DesignerPlus software.  The software creates three separate stitch patterns--one to show where the applique will go, two to tack down the fabric, and a third to sew the satin outline around the edge of the fabric.  Instead of cutting out the R and placing it on the diaper, I sewed a square of fabric using the tack down and then cut away the edges.  Once I finished that, I sewed the outline.  It is hard to see, but the fabric is a velour and was very difficult to cut, but it looked good in the end.

The next several burp cloths were ones my sister sewed for Rachel prior to the ones we did at Thanksgiving. 

These are some burp cloths Tammy made from a pattern.  If you look closely, you can see that she used a decorative stitch around the edge of the top burp cloths.  I really like the ones where she added a ruffle around the edge.  I am amazed at what my sister comes up with sometimes.

Burp Cloths

For my niece Rachel, Tammy had made some burp cloths by taking some cloth diapers and sewing a strip of fabric at one end. The idea is that the burp cloths are pretty to look at when draped over the shoulder. I think she saw this done somewhere. Anyhow, some friends of mine were expecting a baby and I thought it would be a neat baby gift.

I put together some sayings that I thought went with the fabric sewn to the bottom of the diaper.  I am especially pleased with the star diapers--not only did I add the saying, but I also drew some little stars to embroider as well.  Laying out the lettering was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  The software allowed me to change the baseline for the lettering.  I was able to do a little arc and then later I made waves.  

I had a lot of fun with these and they stitched out amazingly well considering we always have problems when stitching small letters.  This time I changed the density of the the stitches and I took out the underlay.  It seems like the added stitches in close proximity contributed to the thread breaking.  Thread breakage is one of the most frustrating problems we experience, but I will go into more details on that later.

At the same time, I also made one with an applique for Rachel.  I put an R on the diaper with a purple fuzzy fabric--I think is was a velour fabric.  Unfortunately, I did not take a picture, but it also turned out well, but was a pain to do.  Cutting the fabric for the applique was more difficult than I thought it would be.

Sophia's Gifts

My great-niece Sophia was born last year the day before Christmas. Tammy has been making lots of stuff for Sophia and for our niece Rachel.  Rachel's brothers had gotten what they called "silly hats" from their aunt on their dad's side.  Tammy and I decided to create a silly hat for Sophia.  I thought it would be cool to embroider on the hat--and decided on her initials although I should have come up with something cooler.  The hat was fairly easy to put together as it is just fleece sewn into a tube, fold the tube in half and fringe the open end.  You try the fringes together to close up the open end opposite the fold and voila!  I don't know that my great-niece or her mother--or her grandmother for that matter--appreciated the hat, but I am still excited we did it.  The font is an imitation Disney font--although with the letters in her initials it is hard to tell.

The cloth came from my sister Vicki who makes quilts.  She has made some really nice quilts--I have three of them and they are great.  Most of the quilts she gives away to charity, but she gives most of the scraps to Tammy to use in her classroom and other things.  We used some of a scrap for the hat and then there was enough left over for Tammy to make a blanket.  She sewed blue edge on it that matched the lettering in the monogram which was the same one as was used on the hat.  Everyone appreciated the blanket more than the hat.  Since I did the embroidery, I still felt good about it, but I thought the hat was really cute.  I wish I had a photo of Sophia in the hat.

Sophia had gotten an abominable snowman (the one from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer--Yukon Cornelius called him the Bumble) stuffed animal with a blanket.  I am not sure who asked who what, but Tammy had the blanket and wanted to embroider something on it.  I decided to embroider "Sophia's First Birthday 2010" on it.  I used the Disney font again, which was a huge hit.  My sister Patti and my niece Amanda (Grandma and Mom) both are big Disney fans and really liked it.  Tammy really liked that I used the variegated thread--we had a long discussion about which one to use.  In the end I really liked how it came out.  Unfortunately, the color in the picture is not quite right.  The blue blanket is nice baby blue and looks a little gray in the picture.

Overall, I like to think the gifts were a success.  I had a lot of fun with the embroidery and I believe Tammy had fun putting together the silly hat.

Dumbledore's Army

I created the Dumbledore's Army design for my brother.  His daughter had mentioned on Facebook that she really liked the Dumbledore's Army Elite Messenger Bag that was featured on the WB website.  Unfortunately, it sold out quickly and my brother was unable to acquire one.  Instead I found a font close to the same font used on the bag and recreated the design to the best of my ability.  The font is called treefrog and I could have bought the "official" font for $40 or I could use a free font that was close.  I opted for free.  The design is also an approximation and not exactly the same.  I thought about digitizing a picture of the design, but the direction of the stitches would have been one way only.  By using the font, the letters are digitized individually and have a little more depth.

It took me some time to space "Dumbledore's Army" around the "D.A.".  Luckily version 6 of the Bernina DesignPlus software made this a lot easier than previous versions.  I also spent some time trying to get the angles on the D and the A just right.  I am very pleased with how it came out, but if you compare it to the official image you can see the differences.  My letters are a little thicker and while I cringe a little when I compare them, I still really like the  look of it.

Anyway, we stitched it out on a messenger bag my brother had picked up somewhere--I think it may have been Barnes and Noble or another bookstore.  The original bag was gray with black lettering and was older style bag with buckles holding the flap down.  His bag was black with a simple gray abstract design and did not have buckles, but instead had a magnet in the flap.  It is a very practical bag, but kind of lacked the "old world charm" of the original.  The design was stitched in gray on the right side of the flap to avoid conflicting with the printed design.  I really liked how sharp the design looked on the bag.  I think my niece was pleased--it is so hard to tell with 10 year olds.  I am pretty sure my brother was pleased.  Unfortunately, the pictures of the bag taken at Christmas were blurry so I won't post them.

Because I was so proud of the way the design came out, I stitched it out on a maroon scarf for myself.  I really like the scarf and have been wearing it a lot since winter has definitely come to Kansas.  If my brother sends me a good picture of the bag I will post it.

Happy New Year!!!

Perhaps ABBA said it best in their song titled "Happy New Year" off the Super Trouper album:

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don't we might as well lay down and die
You and I