I’ve never done applique…I’ve never worn applique. When it comes to clothing, I’m pretty minimalist. Black, grey, white, and tan…oh, and army green! Yeah, I’m a colorful kind of lady-not. I’m not a fussy decorator, either. I just like simple things…no ruffles, no florals, nothing too busy. Couple that with the fact that all my children are pretty much grown ups and you can quickly to see why I’ve never gotten into embroidered t-shirts and/or applique. My sewing machine is a combination sewing/embroidery machine, but other than adding names to things using the pre-loaded fonts, I’ve left the embroidery side alone. Untouched. Unexplored. Uncharted territory.
Still, I won’t lie, I’ve been intrigued. How were people making these amazingly cute little onesies or t-shirts for babies and toddlers? Finally, I decided I had to know. I joined a FB group specifically geared towards owners of my sewing machine and the members were a wealth of information and encouragement. It wasn’t long before I leapt head first into embroidery and applique. I did this little spider first and was hooked.
So, I texted a friend of mine and asked her what size her boys were wearing and devised a plan. Her boys were perfect for my applique adventure…think about it: toddler boys aren’t going to be harsh critics and moms of toddler boys are always willing to get a new t-shirt. I ordered the blanks (blank items on which to embroider or applique) and set about learning what I needed to know so I’d be ready when the blanks arrived. I honestly had no idea how to applique…minor road block, right? Nabbing a few recommendations, I headed over to The Itch 2 Stitch , browsed through their amazing selection of applique files and watched their video tutorial. I bought a few applique files, and got to work with my scrap fabric. After struggling to narrow down my applique choices to these two, the actual applique process was surprisingly easy.
A few practice runs under my belt and I was ready to go. These two little shirts were the end result. Not bad for a newbie!
While I haven’t done more applique following my success with these two shirts, they inspired me to jump into embroidery in a big way…to the point that I was still doing embroidery at 8:00 p.m. December 24! To say I was hooked would be an understatement, but more on that another time. In the meantime, I’ve got two February themed applique projects in the pipeline…I look forward to sharing them with you.