Go Ravens!

Danielle loves football!

It was "Team Attire" day at Danielle's preschool on Monday and I realized the Friday before that she didn't have anything to wear.  I ordered some Ravens gear online for the family that evening, but of course it wasn't going to get here in time.  What to do?

Side View

The answer to that rhetorical question was to sew her something.  I used the Maggie Mae tunic from Shwin & Schwin to make this dress.  The instructions were not ideal, but the end result was cute.  I realized after the dress was done that it was similar to the Ice Cream Dress by Oliver + S (seen in the picture below on the left)

The yoke for this dress is a bit longer in the front and doesn't have the slit in the neckline like the Oliver + S pattern.  And there are actually two pieces that make up the contrast (print) section, so there is a waistline on the Ravens dress, with pleats to take in the skirt fullness, instead of gathers.

We went with ribbons in her hair because I didn't think to make her any hair clippies until 11 o'clock on Sunday evening.  I'm pretty sure my husband would have killed me if I decided to start a new project then.  Maybe I'll have time to knock out some of these cute football barrettes for her before the game tomorrow evening...

"H" Towels

I mentioned several months ago that I wanted to be on top of making presents this year.  Hahahaha.  Yeah, didn't quite work out.  My sister told me at Christmas time what she wanted for her birthday in May, and I managed to get her gift to her 2 weeks ago.  Thank goodness I have an understanding family.

It's a hanging kitchen towel.
In case it's not obvious.

She wanted some hanging towels with her last initial on them.  I was going to make towels with a topper on them, like the ones I made last year, but ended up going with a different style instead.  I used the the free instructions provided at Embroidery Library for "Topsy Towels".

The idea, of course, is that kids can't pull the towels down and they won't fall off.  The one main downside to this style is that you lose a lot of the length (because it's looped around the bar).  I do like the way it looks though.

The only other drawback is that they take a lot of time to make if you don't follow the directions.  The way the fabric should be laid out on the towel in relation to the design is like this:

This isn't a trick--the fabric you add goes on the BACK side of the towel.  The instructions mention this just fine. I, however, hurriedly scribbled down some notes in order to let my daughter watch "Bo on the Go" on my computer.  I ended up finishing the entire towel before I realized I had screwed up.  I salvaged it with a lot of fussing and seam ripping,managing to preserve all the work I had done on the L-shaped buttonhole.

See, when you flip the towel around the design
will be on the same side as the fabric.

I used the applique "H" from Planet Applique's font "Landon".  I didn't want something too feminine (her husband has a say in their decor) and I really wanted the triple bean stitch around the border of the letter, to provide some contrast and interest (there are a lot of browns in this towel, after all). 

I know what you're thinking, but the crookedness is part
of the alphabet--see the slant on the serifs?

My sister said she likes them, even though they weren't what we were originally planning.  I was supposed to just embroider an "H" on the fabric, but I didn't think it would be noticeable with all the contrasting shades of brown.  I'm still on the lookout for the perfect hanging towel style though, and welcome any suggestions!

Thank Heaven

In the midst of the scramble that was my trying to get my twin nieces' package off before their birthday, I took a pause to embroider some burp cloths for my MIL's friend.

"Golden" font used from 8Claws

My MIL picked the pastel fabric combination for baby Jalen and I used the same font I used on the shabby rose bib I recently made to personalize it.  My MIL also wanted a second burp cloth with something girlie on it, so we used the Thank Heaven for Little Girls design from Lynnie Pinnie.

The heels of the socks and their outline is supposed to be
the same color as the satin stitch around the onesie, but
I stopped my machine in between and changed colors.

I used the same girlie colors that the first burp had and packaged them as a set, tied with a tulle bow.  It was a quick and fun gift to make, especially since my MIL clipped all the jump threads and removed the stabilizer :)

Birthday Princesses

My nieces are turning four soon and I wanted to make them shirts for their birthday.  Their mama has planned a fun princess party, where the kids get to play dress up (she's even having capes for the boys to take home as party favors, how fun!).  She wanted something that said "Birthday Princess" and I just so happened to find a very appropriate design at StitchOnTime.

4th Birthday Princess design from StitchOnTime

I like the extras in this design that make it seem complete--there are multiple appliques and cute looking cut-out details in the crown and sparkles and stars scattered about.  I have to say the font stitched out beautifully--it was very well digitized with minimal jumps (I probably could have gotten away with not trimming most of them) and just so nice.

I did split the "th" and the other words in Embird so
that I could make them separate colors

 

The only other design I've stitched from this site is the reindeer I put on a scarf for my mom, but I think I will be frequenting the site more, even if the currency difference tricks me into thinking it won't cost so much (curse you pounds, in all contexts!)