Bowling Shirts

My brother got married this last weekend. He's a super funny kid and I just love the crap out of him and his new wife. She's just too cute and they're beyond adorable together. Anyway, because I'm me, I can't just get them something like a toaster or set of dishes (though that was part of their gift). I had to make them something, and it had to be funny. So this is what I came up with.

Bowling shirts.

Why, you ask? Easy. My bro loves bowling. (I personally hate bowling. I'm a terrible bowler and I'm too competitive for my own good, which keeps me from enjoying how bad I am at this game.) He even took a bowling class for credit at his university. My poor sister in law is dragged bowling fairly frequently, but she loves that little puke, so she is okay with the whole thing. Well, on with the story. I was at Kohl's looking at their clearance racks when I found these wonderful short sleeved button up red shirts. The fabric and design just looked like a bowling shirt. It was perfect. And it had to happen. Home I went with my clearance shirts in tow, and out came the felt. I freehanded the pattern with my scissors (because I'm crazy like that) and ran to Ben Franklin for some spray glue. Guess what? Spray glue does not work for bowling shirts. Lame! So then I just had a sticky mess that my sewing machine hated. So that meant stitching by hand and then running them through the washer/dryer. Not a super big deal (luckily Friends repeats were on the TV), but a bit time consuming. Totally worth it, though. Because, yeah, they totally have personalized bowling shirts now. I wish I'd take a picture of the finished shirts before we gave them to my bro, but I finished at 2 in the morning and had to be up at 5 to catch my flight, so that didn't happen. What you can't see in the pics is the personalized name badge on the front. Yeah, these are legit bowling shirts. And I'm pretty sure that's the coolest wedding present EVER!
My bro is showing off how the shirt is to be used. Nice form, man! And, in case you were wondering, they loved them. I thought my mom would pee herself laughing. And my new sister in law said I should make them for the whole family so we can all wear them together sometime. I'm not sure if she was joking or not, but I'm seriously considering it now...

GIANT embroidered wall sign

I've been working on this every day for a week and, I'm SO excited to unveil it to you!

Time Needed: 6 hours
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: giant frame, printer, pencil, fabric, quilting batting, embroidery hoop, needle, embroidery floss, pins, scissors, Elmer's glue, paintDirections: Go find yourself a big HUGE frame. The one I have is 24x36 (that's half as tall as I am)! If you want to do a crackle frame, paint the whole thing with Elmer's glue. Then, while it's still wet, paint it with the color you want to crackle. As the glue and paint dry, the bottom color will show through. Way cheaper than real crackle paint, trust me! OK back to the embroidery part. Once you've chosen a phrase you'd like to embroider, play computer for awhile. Play around with fonts until you find one you love and that's reasonable to embroider. Look online to find free download-able fonts, too. That's where I found mine. Then, blow it up as big as you need to get it to fit (I used 300 point font - yeah, that's huge) and print that sucker out. Lay it out on the cardboard backing that came with the frame to get the look you want. It'll look something like this:
Then, trace on the pattern onto your fabric with your pencil. Do this lightly, and it'll more or less rub off when you're done. That'll look something like this:Back the fabric with your quilting batting and pin it down. I don't ordinarily pin these things down, but this is a big BIG project that wouldn't stay together otherwise. So pin your heart out all over the edges and throughout the middle to keep things where they need to stay. Stick your embroidery hoop on, and get started with embroidering. If you don't know how, check out the tutorial I have here. It should look something like this:

Halfway through! Lookin good, huh?

Once you're done embroidering all the words, lay it out in the frame to double check the look. This'll also let you know if you need a little sparkle or design added in.
I ended up thickening some of the edges of my red words and adding a few vines into the edges because it needed something. From there, secure the sign to your cardboard backing, stick it in the frame, and hang it on the wall. And then enjoy how COOL you are because this is an AWESOME project!
PS: In case you're wondering why I chose the quote I did, well.. it's kind of corny. The hubs puts up really well with my crafting and creating and messmaking. So when choosing a fun, cute quote, I actually took one out of a techno song. My hubs loves techno, so it was kind of a fun tribute to him. Aw, cute! :)

Fall Applique Shirt

Time Needed: 30 minutes
Level of difficulty: intermediate
Materials needed: t-shirt, brown and orange felt, brown, orange, and green embroidery floss, scissors, needle, pins
Directions: Cut a circle out of the orange felt. Cut a dent in the top and bottom to make it more pumpin-y looking. Then, cut a stem out of the brown fabric. Pin them to place on the shirt and embroider around the outside the same way you would stitch a pattern (like in the "I love you" or the "buon appetito" signs). Make sure you use extra thick thread this time to ensure it stays on the shirt and make sure your knots are tight. Then, make the pumpkin look more like a pumpkin by adding 2 curved lines down the length of it. Take the green floss and make yourself a curved vine. And.. there you go! You can wear it from now clear till Christmastime because it's a plain pumpkin and that means fall. If you wanna make it Halloween-y, take some black felt and make eyes and a mouth and sew them on. I left it as is because I want to be able to wear it longer. Have fun!

"I Love You" embroidered sign

You may be thinking to yourself: Self, this looks all red and covered in hearts and... um... it's October. Doesn't this girl realize it's more Halloween than Valentine's day? Well, dear reader, let me assure you that I get it. For those of you who don't know, my last name is Valentine, so I get to do this kind of craft whenever I feel like it. :)

Time Needed: 1 hour
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: picture frame, scissors, embroidery thread, needle, embroidery hoop, fabric (both colored and plain), Fray Check, quilt batting, pencil, computer and printer (optional)

Directions: Use your computer to print out the design you want to embroider. Then, trace it on to the fabric. (Or, just free-hand your drawing on the fabric.) Take your colored fabric and cut out a heart. Line the edges with Fray Check and let dry. Put the batting behind the fabric and put it in the embroidery hoop. Then, use the embroidery floss to trace the outline you drew on the fabric. This is done by poking the needle through the top of the fabric and then poking it back down a few millimeters forward and pulling the thread through. The next stitch will poke through a few millimeters ahead of the completed stitch and work backwards to where you've previously stitched from. This gives a clean, thin, even line. Continue until done. Lay the dried heart where desired and sew on using a fat stitch. Don't worry if the stitches are uneven - it makes it look really cute if they are a little off. Tie off the thread when done. Then, use the cardboard form in the frame to back the finished stitched product and put it in the frame. Or, use the glass as your form and let the fabric be on the outside.

Helpful Hints - Design Transfer

When working with fabric, you're often left trying to transfer a design from paper to the fabric. I haven't tried this idea personally, but one of my coworkers swears by it. What you do is you buy cheap laminating paper at the craft store. You put that in your printer and print your design on it from your computer. Regular ink works just fine. Anyway, then you put your newly printed design face-down on the fabric and you use an iron on a cool setting to transfer the ink to the fabric. Then, sew or paint or whatever on the fabric, and then send it through the wash. Supposedly, the ink comes out in the machine with just regular detergent. Now how's that for an idea!

Hand Embroidery - How To

I was reading that last post and realized that, if you've never done stitching before, those directions are hard to follow. So, I've created a picture tutorial of how to "trace the line" with your embroidery needlework. Let's see what we've got here:

We start with the fabric already drawn on and in the hoop, like this:
Then, draw the thread up through the fabric at the beginning of the design:

Move a few millimeters forward, and pull the thread back on through the fabric:

Now, on the back of the fabric, move a few millimeters forward still and that's where you're gonna pull the thread through. Think of it like this: From here on out, you'll be working backwards. Only that first stitch goes forwards:To connect the line, work backwards and poke the needle back down where you ended your previous stitch:Once it's pulled all the way through, it'll look like you've traced the line, like this:
Continue the process until you finish tracing your design.

And now you know how to do a simple trace with your embroidery designs. Yay!

Also, for your information, it's typical that embroidery thread comes 6 strands thick. Usually, unless you want a really thick line, it's standard to take two of the strands out, thread those through the needle, and use only those. But, do whatever you want to make your project how you'd like it to be. After all, these are just ideas for you to run with. :)

Cute Kitchen Sign

Time Needed: 1 hour
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: picture frame, scissors, embroidery thread, needle, embroidery hoop, fabric, quilt batting, pencil, computer and printer (optional)
Directions: Use your computer to print out the design you want to embroider. Then, trace it on to the fabric. (Or, just free-hand your drawing on the fabric.) Put the batting behind the fabric and put it in the embroidery hoop. Then, use the embroidery floss to trace the outline you drew on the fabric. This is done by poking the needle through the top of the fabric and then poking it back down a few millimeters forward and pulling the thread through. The next stitch will poke through a few millimeters ahead of the completed stitch and work backwards to where you've previously stitched from. This gives a clean, thin, even line. Continue until done. Then, use the cardboard form in the frame to back the finished stitched product and put it in the frame. Hang and enjoy!
Hint: when cutting your fabric to size, leave at least an inch extra on all sides to be able to fold around the cardboard when you're done. If you cut it exactly to the size of the glass in the frame, you're gonna have a REALLY hard time putting it in the frame without jaggedy edges or blank spots showing up. This extra inch or so gives you room to pull the fabric tight around the cardboard. I usually tape mine firmly into place on the back to make sure they don't go anywhere.
(PS - Don't judge that the wall under the picture frames is wet. I just did dishes and decided to wash down the wall as well. Promise it's clean!)