1 Shirt + 2 Pairs of Pants = ???

Want to know one of my favorite end of season clearance rack tricks?  I love to look for a cute pair of shorts/leggings/skirt/etc. in the size that will fit for the following season, and then I look for another pair of the exact same shorts/leggings/skirt/etc. in the largest size available!  Want to know why?  I cut up the larger pair and use the fabric to make a coordinating applique shirt.  Check out the cute Ghost Name Patch set I made below.

I started with a long sleeve black shirt and two pairs of striped leggings from Target.  My niece is currently wearing size 18 mo. but I also bought a size 4T in the leggings as well. 

I decided to cut in the back bottom area first - this is where the fabric is the largest in between seams.

Because this is a stretchy knit material I wanted to be sure to use Heat-n-Bond Lite to secure my fabric while stitching.  Knit is notorious for rolling up and puckering...which can be nice for a raggy finish, but not when satin stitching is involved! 

 

I love having some of the pants pattern included in the top and now I am tempted to go buy a pair of 2T leggings for next year as I have enough fabric left from the 4T pants to make another cute shirt next year!

Here are some of my favorite spots to look for cute and affordable bottoms to purchase in duplicate: Old Navy, Target, Gymboree, Crazy 8.  Any other recommendations? 

Tuesday Tip-Day: Change of (Fabric) Plans

Confession time.  How long does it take for you to pick your fabrics when stitching?  Does a fabric pop into your mind as soon as you look at the design?  Or do you put two, three, or ten fabric swatches on top of a blank item to try to help you decide which one to use?  I typically fall somewhere in the middle of those extremes but have been on either end at some point too!

Do any of you get through a design and then realize you should have used another fabric?  I have had those problems too...but I have also been able to fix that issue mid way through a design!  Want to know the trick? 

At All Things Applique, I typically create the designs so all of the placement and tackdown stitches are at the beginning of the design and all of the satin and detail stitching follows at the end of the design.  This can't be done all of the time, but I prefer to get all of my trimming done at the beginning and then let the time consuming satin stitches run at the end while I prep my next project.  When all of my tackdown and trimming steps are complete, I usually hold up my hooped item and take a good look to make sure I like what I see.  In the picture below, I thought the fabric on the left for the crown was too busy.  When I put my fabrics together ahead of time, I thought the stripes would look great against the orange pumpkin, but once the small crown piece was tacked down I knew it didn't look how I pictured.  Sigh.  Instead of starting over, I simply went back one thread color on my machine and tacked a new piece of crown fabric on top of the old crown fabric! 

Here is the finished Princess Pumpkin with our Pirate Pumpkin...

Aren't they a cute pair?

A few extra tips:

• make sure that the new fabric is dark enough to cover the first fabric.  If not, try putting a solid piece of fabric in between the old fabric and new fabric
• make sure the first fabric is trimmed a close as possible before tacking down the second fabric
• in the example above, if you want to change any "bottom" fabrics (such as the pumpkin), you will also need to re-tack the top fabric. 
• I would only recommend doing this once.  The more fabric layers you add, the tougher it will be for the satin stitches to cover all of the edges. 

Hope this Tuesday Tip helps you work through any fabric change of plans with ease! 

A New Kind of Busy Season

Several years ago the term “busy season” caused an increased level of anxiety for me.  It meant extremely long work hours and lots of tight deadlines.    Can you guess my old profession? 

Tax Accountant.  I worked at one of the Big 4 firms in Atlanta for several years after graduating college and worked on many a tax return.  January 1 to April 15 every year was crazy busy and stressful and I think I ate more dinners at the office than at home.  And as typical accountants, we had a very efficient spreadsheet that was circulated every afternoon to place an order if you were working late.  Ha!  But somehow we always survived and met all of our deadlines.  Phew! 

Now, I have a different busy season.  It involves apples, footballs, and pumpkins.  It gets me excited and makes me want to sketch and think of different fabric and stitch combinations.   I feel like the “to do” list is longer than there are hours in a day, reminiscent of past busy seasons.  Still, every morning I am ready to tackle one or more items on that list!  With Back to School, Football, and Fall right around the corner it is busy season for sure…but in a good way. 

Over the past few weeks, I have released a mini set of Football Designs…

 Back to School Designs…

 And Pumpkin Designs.

 

And now I am about to do it all over again!  Today I am working on one more set of back-to-school designs including some more “sketch” designs as well as some preschool patches, a fun back-to-school dino and some raggy shape designs.   

Have an idea for my next set of Football or Fall designs?  Please leave a comment below!  If I use your idea you will receive that design for FREE!

Chalkboard Wall, Painting, Gifting, and Designing

We have been busy, busy, busy designing and listing just as many Thanksgiving and Christmas designs as we possibly can for you guys! Have you seen them all? Take a look...



Do you have a favorite? I think I like the Dinosaur with the Santa Hat...because that one was a special request from my 4-year old. :)

You can find ALL of these designs and MORE at either www.allthingsapplique.com or www.allthingsapplique.etsy.com

Here are a few baby gifts that I FINALLY mailed this week. I stitched all of these bibs when we were in our temporary apartment this summer. Talk about belated gift giving! Thankfully babies need bibs for a long time and I hope they can still use these.



Now...it is time to work on the 10+ other new baby gifts I am still behind on. So many new precious gifts to be thankful for this year!

I recently tackled a couple of Pinterest ideas...and I must admit...they were both very fun and easy!

First up...a BIG, GIANT, chalkboard wall!

For those of you that remember our housing saga as we relocated to North Carolina, there was a room in the house we first had a contract on that was going to be PERFECT for it to be painted 1/3 chalkboard, 1/3 stainless steel (magnet) and 1/3 cork board. I had my heart set on it and it was going to be one of the first projects we tackled.

You can see the idea here...



While I do LOVE the house we are now in, there just wasn't a good wall for that type of project. But, as we have gotten settled, I have been inspired by a maps/solar system theme for the boys' playroom. I will share more as it changes (very slow progress around here)but for now we have one giant solar system wall that is chalkboard paint! The idea is for the bottom half to be all kids...and I am going to sketch the solar system at the top...



The boys have LOVED it and it is fun to see the creations they come up with.

The other Pinterest inspired project was for Halloween...a little late in sharing...sorry!

The boys painted canvases...



We added footprint ghosts and handprint spiders...



And then they wanted to keep painting! It was great and I LOVE their creations. Look forward to hanging these for years to come!



I will start switching design gears to Valentine's soon...if you have any design requests or ideas...please e-mail me at allthingsapplique (at) gmail (dot) com.

Bunch of Pumpkins Tutorial

One of our most popular Back to School designs was this adorable Bunch of Apples design.  The design has a little bit of fill stitch, but is mostly a raggy stitch and pretty quick to stitch out.  You can use 1 fabric, 2 different fabrics, or 9 different fabrics as I did in the example below. 



I decided to create another "bunch" design...this time Pumpkins!  I am also considering bunches of footballs, ornaments, hearts, etc.  It is a great design to use up all kinds of small pieces of scrap fabric...or to really showcase one fabric that you LOVE! 

I thought it might be helpful to detail by pictures how I stitch this design.  So here goes...

First up is the instruction sheet:




(As an aside, did you know that every design you purchase from All Things Applique comes with a detailed instruction sheet similar to this one?  I hope the instructions help!)

The first step is to pick your fabrics.  I start by cutting small squares.  (Note: For the 5X7 design, each pumpkin is 1.25" x 1.4" so these are small pieces of fabric.)  Then I play with the squares to arrange them however I like.  I think I spent as much time arranging as I did stitching! Ha!  But truly...I think this design looks good no matter how you arrange your fabric. 



The first step in this design is the pumpkin stems. Simply hoop your item...make sure it is centered...thread your brown or green thread and stitch the first color.



One quick note...

I set the design to stitch as follows:
Top Row: Left to Right
Middle Row: Right to Left
Bottom Row: Left to Right

This order prevents a big jump stitch from the top right pumpkin to the middle left pumpkin. The design snakes down to create the smallest jump stitches possible.

The next step is the Placement Stitch. I like to place a large sheet of flannel or felt down that covers the entire hoop for this step. See below.



Now you are ready to stitch color 2. Note, all placement stitches will stitch in one color without stopping.

Once your placement stitch is in place...

\

It is time to stitch the tackdown stitch for all 9 pumpkins. You have a couple of choices here. You can lay one fabric down at a time and add the next fabric at each color stop on the machine. Or, you can lay all 9 fabrics down at once and then just go through the 9 tackdown stitches without having to remove your hoop or lay down any fabric in between stops. See below for an example.



If you choose the latter, you will need to make sure that your scrap fabrics pieces do not overlap at all or the tackdown stitches might grab the wrong fabric. Either way is fine...just do what is most comfortable for you!

After all of the tackdown stitches are complete, you are ready for the final step...the redwork/detail stitches. These will all stitch in one step. Again, the order snakes down the design...top row is left to right, middle row is right to left, and bottom row is left to right.



Once all stitching is done, remove your item from the hoop and carefully trim away the excess fabric and enjoy your beautiful work!



What other "bunch" designs would you like to see?

Fall???

This past weekend was cool and rainy...it felt like fall was just around the corner.

And today it is muggy and mid 80's.  Fall...you are such a tease! 

We decorated anyway this weekend and despite the warm temps we are enjoying our new fall decor.  The boys were really excited to help and most of the decorations are kid friendly.

Pumpkins to replace the candles on the mantle candlesticks...




Wooden pumpkins on the dining room table...



We have several ghost and bat pillows in the living room...by far the boys' favorite!  My little one walks around the house with a ghost in front of his face saying "ooooooooooooooooooh"  I wonder where he got that idea? :)



A new spider wreath I made for the front door.  I wrapped orange yarn around a straw wreath, added some black ribbon, and a big felt spider I found at Michaels. 



My mother-in-law (Mimi) was in town this past week and she did a fun fall craft with the boys.  They made pumpkins out of circus peanut candy and gum drops.  Then they filled up the truck with their "harvest"! I love it! And the report from Mimi is that the boys had a blast making the pumpkins too!



My husband has been taking the boys on lots of hikes lately and they always come home with pockets full of acorns and pinecones too! I love having them out on the table for decoration.  And the boys love playing with them and counting them and they are a great reminder of a fun day spent with daddy in the woods.



We planted our fall mums a couple of weekends ago...and they are very loved and thoroughly watered.



And finally...I made the boys some new felt toys/cookies to play with!  I love working with my embroidery machine but love it even more when I get to make something for my boys that they enjoy!






So there you have it...a peek at our Halloween decor.  Nothing very extravagant...it all fits in one Tupperware box...but having it up is making our new house feel more like home! 

Have you decorated for fall yet?