Framed Letters for a Personalized Nursery

atgadmin — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:29:00 GMT

For Diane Brown, embroidery started as a hobby to get away from all the stress of her job as a bank compliance officer. It didn’t take long, however, for her obsession to blossom into a new career. For a number of years she has been working behind the scenes in the development of software and embroidery designs that are fun and easy-to use. Creating embroidery software learning tools and fun projects that inspire creativity is her specialty. “Embroidery should always, always be fun” is Diane’s motto.

Using embroidery to make whole rooms come to life has become a real passion for Diane. Themed nurseries are her favorite, although she loves creating comfortable accessories for every room in the house. These simple framed letters were inspired by some very expensive accents but were a fraction of the cost. They were fun to make and they match the nursery to a T.

Diane's Description
I gasped when my daughter showed me some stamped, framed jumbo letters in a very popular magazine and said she would love to have them for the new baby’s nursery. But the price was astronomical. So, we used AnnTheGran’s Jumbo Alphabet, scraps from the nursery quilt, hand cut mats from cardstock and some simple white frames from the local discount store.

Step-by-step
1. Cut 4 8”X10” rectangles from fabrics of your choice. Spray starch your fabric if desired as this will help give you a professional finish.
2. Hoop fabric with a heavy weight stabilizer (tearaway or cut away should work fine). To be sure it is centered fold the fabric in half and finger crease both vertically and horizontially.
3. Choose threads that contrast with the fabric. Just a tip: I always use the same color thread in my bobbin as in the top when I do any type of lettering. Embroider the letters that you need. Cut the stabilizer even with the edges of the fabric.
4. Cut a piece of cardboard the size you want your mat opening to be. Use this as a template for cutting your mats. You can use precut mats if you like.
5. Place the mat face down on your work surface. Center the letter in the opening and glue the fabric front to the mat back. I left the stabilizer on and glued the edges of it down to the fabric as well.
6. Place the matted letters in the frame.
7. Note: If you have software you can resize these letters to 6” tall and then for all but the widest letters they fit perfectly in a 5X7 mat or frame.

What makes this project special?
I love being a grandmother and being able to make things that are loved by my daughters. It is fun to see a whole room take shape and know that there is no one else with one just like it.

Skill Level
Beginner

Products
My embroidery machine
AnnTheGran Jumbo Alphabet
Stabilize It! heavy cut-away stabilizer
embroidery thread
fabric

Time Investment
Two to three hours once all the supplies were gathered.

Why You Love This Project
It was for Anna – my precious new baby granddaughter.

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, I'd love to hear about them, and see them! If I choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
Diane's passion is room decor, particularly themed nurseries. Do you have a particular passion or specialty at which you excel? Click on the Comments link to tell us your area of expertise.

Cool Pirate Costume for Halloween - Thanks Grandma!

atgadmin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:30:00 GMT

This embroidery-laden project was sent in by Barbara Schaffer, and I chose it for this week because it's a wonderful example of how a grandma can still be cool with a 10-year-old boy! Forget the old idea of Grandma knitting a sweater they'll never wear; with all that we have at our disposal now, we can take anything in our minds and create something limited only by our imaginations. I'll let Barbara take it from here!

General Description
This is the pirate costume that I made for my grandson. . . pants, shirt, vest and booty bag with a total of 13 embroideries I didn't have a pattern for it so I designed my own but a purchased pattern should be available at your local fabric store. It is also possible to use the child's own clothing and just apply the embroidery.

Step-by-step description
First I cut out all of the garment pattern pieces. I stabilized and hooped each piece to embroider a mummy and skeleton on the front of the pant legs. I embroidered a ship on the right sleeve and then the transformed pirate ship on the left sleeve. The shirt pocket got a jolly roger, the cuffs and collar got skulls. The vest has a parrot on the front. The center back has a large pirate with my grandson's initial "C". There are more skulls at the waist back. The booty bag has another skull. When the embroidery was complete I assembled the garments.

What makes this project special?
I'm just a beginner and I feel a lot more comfortable with my machine now. This project really allowed me to practice my skills over and over again because there are so many embroideries involved. I gained new self confidence in my abilities. The WOW! factor has been big.

Skill level
I think that this project could be completed by any skill level. The flat pattern pieces were easy to position and hoop. I knew that if I made a mistake I would be able to discard that piece and cut another to replace it before I sewed the garment together (that really took the stress away). I took my time and enjoyed the learning process. The most difficult part was designing the costume from scratch. I measured some of his clothes to get the proportions right, a slim size 10.

[Note from Ann]:
Barbara did a great job with her placement on the pattern pieces. If you are using a pre-sewn garment you can still easily acheive exact placement without stress using the Perfect Placement Kit. And for no hoop lines when sewing on napped fabrics like Barbara's Pirate costume I recommend the Magna Hoop.

Products
My machine is a Pfaff 2140 with the 5 x 7 hoop. I don't have a smaller hoop but a smaller hoop would be useful with the smaller designs if you have one. I used almost every pirate theme design that I could find in my stash. I used cut-away stabilizer and polyester embroidery thread because it is more durable for children's clothing that is washed often.

Time investment
I completed the costume in about a week because I made the clothing as well as the actual 13 embroideries.

Why I love This Project
My grandson was so surprised when I gave him this costume. He can't stop smiling. He says,"Grandma, you are awesome!" that's a real compliment from a 10 year old. I can't stop smiling either!

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, we'd love to hear about them, and see them! If we choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
Using a variety of themed embroideries from various sources, Barbara created a complete look that gave just the right impact to her project. How do you find all the designs for a theme in your library? Click on the Comments link to give us your ideas.

AnnTheBlogger : cut-away stabilizer

Framed Letters for a Personalized Nursery

Cool Pirate Costume for Halloween - Thanks Grandma!