Pumpkin Shirt

I found an adorable pair of orange velour pants with polka-dot cuffs on clearance for a couple of dollars last fall and of course, I couldn't find a shirt to match, so I made one.  I opted for a plain pumpkin design so that it could be worn in October and November.  She has a wintery sweater dress that needs a shirt underneath and this shirt will be perfect for that too.  The pumpkins won't show, but the sleeves are the right color.  Yay for getting to wear a seasonal shirt all winter.

Cute, simple pumpkin design that was a freebie. 

Here you can see the pants a little bit.  It is really cute, but more "Fall" than "Halloween."

I have never used worse thread than with this project. It should have been very straight forward and quick to stitch out, but the thread kept breaking and twisting and doing all sorts of other crazy things that would make the machine stop. It easily took twice as long as it should have and I was so frustrated when it was done that I threw away the thread when I was done. I had just opened it, but could not face the thought of doing another project with such a faulty product.

I have other thread from the same manufacturer, and while they all have some issues, this one was just crazy. I will never buy cheap thread again. When I first got my machine, I bought a large lot of thread, but I should have sprung for the better quality. Lesson learned. I have had good luck with Sulky and Medeira brands.

Car Shirts

A friend asked if I could make her twin boys shirts with cars on them with the cars being different colors. I didn't have any car patterns, but I found a cute woody applique that we both liked. The shirts turned out really cute, but the woven fabric I used for the cars is not holding like I would like it to. I have never had that problem before and feel badly that, while very cute, they aren't quite working out like we had hoped. I found two brick red shirts in her boys size at Target last night and I'm going to experiment with an idea and see if I can get it to work better.

Green car.

Close up view.  The "wood" part is tan corduroy.

Light blue car.  Yes, I took the photo before washing off my marking lines.  If I wait, it doesn't happen.

Close up of the light blue.  Sorry it is hard to see the color well, but it looks nice.

Birthday Gifts

I have not blogged in well over a month, but I promise that I have been very busy.  I'm a bit behind on showing my new projects, but I have also been doing a lot of mending which isn't very exciting and I don't take photos of the mended stuff.  I'll try to do a post a day (I hope) until I catch up.

Word of warning, if you might be inviting one of my kids to a birthday party this year and you want to be surprised by the gift, quit reading now. If you don't care, read on.





My son started preschool last year and the number of birthday parties we went to exploded. What I learned last year is that I am terrible at selecting a birthday gift for 4-6 year olds that I don't know very well and my son is no help at all. We enjoyed having a party with his school friends for his birthday, but were a bit overwhelmed at the volume of toys that resulted. So, I got to thinking, and while it may not be the most exciting gift a young child has ever opened, I decided to make personalized gifts this year. So that I won't get confused, I decided that everyone would be getting the same thing and this year it will be a beach towel with their name on it. I know I have done towels in the past, but I had only done them for family or friends where I thought it might be something they would like. I have no idea how these will go over, but I know that lots of the kids in his school do swimming lessons and I always loved stuff with my name on it when I was a kid.

We have already had two parties and here are the towels.

I love the color combo of the royal blue towel with the lime green turtles and orange letters for the name.  It's so bright and cheery.

My spacing could have been better, but it is a little hard to hoop it three times and get the spacing right each time.  I should have planned to have the turtles about an inch or so farther out.

I'm not as crazy about the turquoise color towel, but since I'm doing these out of season, I have to use what I have or can find.  I'm happier with my spacing on this one though.

I probably won't do turtles on all of the towels I make this year, but these little guys are quick to sew and were ready to go from the last time I did them.  I had planned on some cute little clown fish, but was running short on time and they take forever to stitch out.

I hope the kids (or at least the parents) liked them.