Name Stockings

I made these last year and originally posted about them HERE but I thought I'd share it again in case anyone is interested in making some! They really were a lot of fun.

 Now that our family feels complete, I decided it was the perfect year to sew some stockings. I was so excited when this idea came to me. I knew I wanted to incorporate our names somehow. And lots of my favorite fabrics. So this is what I came up with.

I knew I wanted the base to be felt. Our stockings were made from felt when I was little, and I just think it seems Christmas Stocking-ish. And I knew I wouldn't have to line it. I am glad I went with felt because it was a good base for the letters. I used wool felt from JoAnn. I don't think it's 100% wool, but it's definitely not the acryllic stuff that is the cheapest. It was on the smaller bolt for about $10/yard (I used a coupon, of course).

I tried to draw my own stocking shape, and then tried to trace an old one, but neither of those efforts gave me the exact shape/size I was looking for. I like a larger size, and a nice round toe. While browsing my favorite blogs, I found Mad Mim's "perfect stocking template" and it was just that - perfect! Find it HERE. Thanks, Miriam! So, I simply cut the felt pieces out and then the trickiest part was sketching out the letters. I wanted them big and bold, so I made them fill the entire stocking. I'm glad everyone has 5 letters or less in their names - it was tricky fitting Simon and Greta on there! Technically, Max is "Maxwell" but that's mostly when he's in trouble and Max was easier!

Drawing out the letters and making them look just right was the most time-consuming part (and least fun). But then it was fun to pick out the fabrics and get my applique on! For more letter applique tips, see my tutorial HERE.

 Most of these "process" photos were just snapped with my phone whenever I randomly remembered to take one.
 

I drew the letters normal, but was sure to trace them BACKWARDS on the heat-n-bond before ironing onto the letters. ((take a look at my applique letter tutorial to see what I mean.))

I stitched around the letters -- three times around each letter if you're wondering. (see photo below) I have lots of fancy stitches on my machine, and I tried out a bunch of different things, but in the end I liked the thickness that I got by going around each letter 3x with a straight stitch. Which of course kept me up til 4:30 am one night, but hey they will be on our wall for years and you should see how excited my kids were when they them.

 
 The nice thing about felt is that I just stitched the fronts to the backs (right sides together), flipped them out and that was it! Didn't need to line them or finish the top. I am still debating what to use for a hook (maybe rick rack) so for now they are just hung with some pins. We don't have a mantle, anyway. I told the kids that Santa will take them off the pins before he fills them, of course.

Matters of the heart.

she wears her heart on her sleeve

Last night at dinner, we remembered that today was Ruby's 100th day of school. She was supposed to take 100 items to school. So she counted out some buttons from my big ol' box of random buttons. As we were brainstorming, we thought about cutting out a hundred paper hearts.

So that got me thinking, and naturally my mind went to fabric and applique (surprise, surprise). I  said "what if we put one hundred hearts on a shirt?!" Ruby was excited about that idea. Luckily she had a few plain shirts in her drawer, so she ran and picked one out. Then I let her dig through my fabric and pick out all her favorites while I got to tracing all the little hearts.



We did a few large hearts, but most of them were the smaller ones, about 1" and 2" (patterns cut out from a cereal box). I used no-sew Heat-n-Bond Ultra Hold. There was no way I'd have the time (or sanity) to sew around one hundred little hearts! But we can still wash the shirt. I've used the no-sew Heat-n-bond before and it works great. The process is basically what I show in my polka dot shirt tutorial. 

We only got a few hearts cut out before it was bedtime for Ruby. She knew I'd stay up to finish it, though. She is used to my crazy crafting ways. I am used to cutting a lot of appliques, though, so it went pretty quickly. There are no fabric repeats in the shirt!

When I started ironing the hearts on the shirt, it was looking pretty crazy. I thought, oh no what have I done?! But you can't just stop with 50 or 60 hearts when it's for the 100th day of school! So I pressed forward, unsure of how it would turn out. When I finished the shirt at 2 am, I snapped a picture and just prayed that Ruby would actually want to wear it to school. I'll admit I was pretty out of it this morning when she got up and got ready for school (thank goodness for dad who got them out the door since I stayed up too late making the shirt). She came to my bed and tapped me on the shoulder and said "thanks for the cute shirt, mom!" I gave her a groggy kiss and she was on her way. 

 heart vomit!

I think part of me wanted to make the heart shirt for her because she was so excited about it. And I know deep in my heart that she won't always want to wear the silly things I make. She's still young and innocent. And oblivious to what's "in style." I asked her if she told her friends why there were a hundred hearts on her shirt and she casually said, "nah."  Looked at me like, why would I, mom? She said only her teacher asked about it. Which is fine, of course. I just love that she didn't care if anyone commented or asked about it.

When I posted these photos on facebook last night, I had several friends comment things like "mom of the year!" or "you make the rest of us look bad" or "you're the best mom!" and it really got me thinking. 

For one thing,  I don't want anyone thinking that I'm doing it to show off, or solicit such comments. And more importantly, it makes me think, "does this really make me a good mom?" No. In fact, I often worry that I'm not doing enough. I know all mothers do. We are hardest on ourselves, right? I think I would be a better mom if I spent less time sewing and more time reading to my kids or playing with them. I need to be more patient and yell less. 

I am constantly trying to foresee what my kids will remember when they look back on their childhood. Will they remember a yelling mom? Or a mom who was always stressed? Or was I always sitting at the sewing machine? (That's a tough one because much of the sewing I do is just to bring in some money to keep our family afloat). Will they appreciate the time I spent sewing them things, or will they just wish I had played more with them? Do I listen to them enough? Do I tell them I love them enough? Do I feed them enough? Do I teach them enough? Do I hug them/kiss them/hold them/look at them enough? These are the thoughts running through my head all the time. Its easy to feel I'm not doing enough.

Do all moms (parents) wonder if their crappy parenting might ruin their kids? Do you get to the end of some days and wonder if you got anything right? (please bless that they remember the laughter and not the yelling) I feel so clueless sometimes and wonder how it will all turn out. How my kids will turn out. 

Much like the crazy 100-heart shirt I made for Ruby.
Once I started, there was no turning back. I'll admit, it looked pretty messy and I didn't even like it as it was coming together. I was sorta worried  that it would look ridiculous. Even when I finished, it still looked pretty crazy. But in the end, Ruby loved it and that was all that mattered. Heaven knows there are many days where I wonder, "how in the world am I the mom? I have no idea what I'm doing." But these kids are definitely non-returnable. I've looked into it. Just kidding. 
maybe. 

But we all just press forward, doing the best we can for our kids. Not because anyone is trying to be "the best" or "mom of the year", but because we all feel the same deep and overwhelming love for our kids.  And in the end, even when we look back on our messy life with all the crazy stuff in there, we will love it. And we will see, just like the hearts smashed on the shirt, everything came together just fine. 

It all makes me think of this quote I heard once:

  image source

Oh how true. Now my heart is split into four pieces, beating outside my body. Am I mom of the year? Or super mom? Nah. Am I doing my best? I hope so.

Scrappy Applique

A few months ago, I picked up some inexpensive sweatshirts for the kids. They were plain navy but I thought they'd come in handy under snow gear in the winter, or for lounging around the house. But then Ruby wouldn't wear hers because she said it was too boring and boyish. *gasp!*

So, of course I had to do something to cute-it-up. At midnight one night, I pulled out my scraps and put a scrappy R applique on it for her. Then last week I used the same idea for Simon's birthday shirt. I couldn't decide what color or fabric to use, but his cake was going to be rainbow colored, so again, my scraps came to the rescue. He loved it!

 (Can't you tell? haha)

The how-to is not much different than my basic applique letters, so I won't go into too much detail. I think the photos explain it pretty well.

 Print off a letter or number (backwards or mirror image) and get started!

Trace the letter on the paper side and cut roughly around it, but not along the lines yet.

 I pulled out a basket of scraps (I have many!) and pulled out some of my favorites to see how they looked against the navy shirt. This is why I rarely throw away any piece of fabric! Small pieces (2 inches and under) came in handy here.

This is the fun part:  I started laying the scraps out on the letter, and trimming them down as I went. You want them to overlap just slightly, so there is no white showing through.

Or at least make sure the white within the lines is all covered up. Just play around with the scraps like a puzzle until you like the way it looks and it's completely covered up. Like this:

Now, you're ready to iron it all together. But first put a scrap piece of fabric over the entire thing so avoid getting any heat-n-bond on your iron.


  Believe me, you do NOT want that sticky stuff on your iron. So, carefully place the scrap fabric over the entire letter (make sure your scraps don't shift) and iron it all down.

Turn it over to make sure all the pieces are ironed on well.

Cut around the letter and see how it turned out!

Peel off the paper back and you're ready to iron it onto your shirt.  

Now I think this part is fun, too. Put your shirt in the sewing machine (remove the front part to make the arm skinny, if your machine has that option). And now you'll simply stitch around the edge of the letter, and all across the fabric seams. 

 If you take a close look at the photos above and below, you'll see I'm not that exact about it. That's part of the scrappy look that I like. I went around the outer edge a couple times and then moved my way around each piece of fabric, just to make sure they were all secured. Just have fun with it. Any color thread will work here, but I find that a lighter thread is a little more forgiving if your lines aren't straight. But again, just do what you think looks fun!

That's it! And just think - you can use this idea on anything, really. Not just a shirt... aprons, bags, blankets, onesies, pillowcases, hats, whatever! Endless possibilities with fabric scraps. So fun.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll reply in the comment section or update the post to clarify anything. 

More applique projects can be found HERE and HERE. 

linking to Fabric Tuesday:

for baby edith

I just sent off this baby gift for a friend (a custom order). 

These minky rag quilts are just so soft. They are rather simple to make, too. See my tutorial HERE if you'd like to make one! I also tried a new font for the name onesie.

They call her Edie for short -- so cute!

skateboard tees

I had a friend order these custom tshirts for her twins. Liam said he wanted a skateboard. Then naturally Fiona wanted one, too. So I needed to figure out how to do a girl skateboard and a boy skateboard. Well, I tried a simple skateboard shape, but it ended up looking like a pickle (or worse!?) ... so I came up with these, thanks to some searching on google images.Stitching around the appliques was a little tricky, especially on the dude's fingers and girl's pig tails (which I added to the image I found).

I thought they turned out fun and she said the kids loved them.

If you're interested in a custom t-shirt  just let me know! 

I can do just about any image. 

And it's fun to come up with new ideas.

p.s. The giveaway is still open!


linking up:

just a girl

craft & tell

Superhero Saturday

I busted out some Superhero shirts for (cousin) Henry's birthday party on Saturday.
Max already had his Superman shirt. Then I made an all pink version (and polka dot cape) for Ruby. I figured Simon needed one, too, and thankfully he had a shirt I could use so I hurried and slapped an applique on that. Then I was lucky enough to find a teeny tiny onesie for my nephew 2-week-old Charlie. And I thought it would be funny to make him a little cape to go with it! I know, it looks like a bib - I was in a hurry! My family knows all too well that I finish these things as we're literally buckling kids into carseats.

And a "4" shirt for Henry, of course. [If you're new to the blog, you may not know that birthday shirts were the way I started my etsy shop 4 years ago.]
It's times like these when I'm glad I have a ridiculous amount of fabric in my stash! I had everything on hand except for the blue shirt I used for Henry's gift.

Charlie did not particularly like being Batman.

Two weeks old - still so tiny. Cute little peanut!

But then he spit up (see wet onesie), and decided to just go with it. Welcome to our crazy family, Charlie.