Hockey Pillowcase

My little great nephew is a hockey fiend. I made this for him last year. I absolutely adore the referee fabric. It's from Robert Kaufman and the line is called Sports Life. Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about the helmet fabric. The font is Tinker Toy.

Kayla Couture Soccer Wear

I thought I'd take Kayla's brand and use it for some soccer clothing for her. I was so excited about the soccer shirts. I'm really happy with how the pink soccer ball turned out. The soccer ball design is from Applique Cafe. The font that I use for her brand is Just Another Serif from 8 Claws and a Paw.

This soccer stick girl is from Designs by Juju. I love the stick figures. I don't use them as much as I used to. I need to change that. They are such cute designs. 

The Branding of Kayla

 Every fashionista deserves to have a brand, right? I've been thinking about this for maybe a year now. I wanted to experiment with making a brand for my niece. So off and on I've been playing with fonts and putting letters together and working on names. Of course I didn't bother to get my niece's input or my sister's for that matter! I tried working with Kayla's last name and the monogram just wasn't quite right. So I had to venture down a different path. I had to give Kayla's brand a name. So Kayla Couture (and so much more!) it was.
 My goal is to use her logo on more of her dress garments, not so much her play wear. The font that made the final cut was "Just Another Serif" from 8 Claws and a Paw. Too, too bad that Chanel has the best logo around and I couldn't use that. Drat.

Alright, let's look at some of Kayla's garments and accessories. I think every couture house has some very basic, chic black and white ensembles. This outfit was one of the very first that came to my mind. I got this fabric in the clearance bin. Quite honestly, I get a lot of Kayla's specialty fabrics in the clearance bin. Cottons cost a fortune but nicer garment fabric I can get for cheap. Too bad for the industry that people don't use the fabric but I luck out with some steals. Back to Kayla's outfit. I immediately thought she needed a pencil skirt to go with this t-shirt. I spied the fabric at Joann's I think. It might have cost me $1 or $2 to make. The pattern that I used is McCalls 6274. If you look at the pattern, the skirt kind of has a safari feel to it. Well all I had to do was to omit all the pockets. Viola! Pencil skirt!

Here is my version of the pattern. What do you think?

Notice her logo at the bottom of the skirt?

Doesn't this dress look huge? I made it a size 8 so it will work for back to school. This pattern is New Look 6018. This pattern is now out of print. I'm grateful that I purchased it when I did.

Now for some accessories. A sunglass case.

A summer hat.

A beach tote.

Finally, this is for Kayla's mom. I figured my sister needs a lingerie bag to wash Kayla's shirts in.
The Frame is the Mia frame from Planet Applique.

Well, that's it for now. I have a few more ideas for Kayla Couture. Stay tuned!

A Birthday Onsie for Stacy

My daughter Lauren called and asked if I could make a onsie for her. She was making a birthday tutu for someone and wanted a onsie that would match. The tutu will be turquoise, hot pink, orange, green and yellow. We decided to do this little birthday balloon. The design is smaller than I like. But bumping the design up to the next larger size would be too big and I didn't want to deal with a large embroidery hoop on this little garment.

 

This font is called Girls and it's from 8 Claws and a Paw. It's a gorgeous font. The balloon is from Planet Applique.

Sugar and Spice Ensemble

It's funny how an idea develops. I saw a piece of this fabric at a quilt shop near Madison. There was about a yard and a half left of it and no other companion pieces left in the store. I had to then go on a mission to find more of this line. The line is called Sugar and Spice from Riley Blake. I ended up buying a few yards off of Etsy and a few yards from Whimsical Designs.

My goal for the outfit was to have a skirt that had kind of a Christmas feel to it. You can see this isn't Christmas fabric but with the red and aqua colors it could lend itself that way. I purchased two aqua shirts from Old Navy but ended up only using one. I wanted to get away from always using a white shirt but the design just didn't pop on the aqua. So back to white it was. You really can't tell that the design on the aqua shirt it Christmas candy. Well I guess that will make it easier for my niece to wear it longer than the Christmas season.

Now for the important parts. The mint applique is from Planet Applique. The "K" is the Jack and Jill font from Planet Applique. The font for Kayla is called Sammy from 8CAAP and finally the raggy flower is from Hang to Dry. I really like how the white shirt pops those colors out.

The pattern is McCalls 6276.

Two Mouse Shirts

Here are two more shirts for my coworker Cindy. Her two year old granddaughter loves Disney and Minnie Mouse. When it came time to find an applique for her six month old granddaughter, I decided to just make the girls matching shirts. The applique came from Etsy. The font is Walt from 8CAAP.

Reverse Applique

This shirt is for my coworker Cindy. She did a very nice thing and thought of me when someone handed her a boatload of leather. She thought of me first and asked if I wanted it. Who could say no to that! I've only made a couple of things so far, two Kindle covers. I also used leather for one or two football appliques. I'm hoping that the leather will be put to good use in 2012. I have some ideas fermenting.

Back to the shirt, the soccer applique is from Starbird Stock Designs. It's called a reverse applique because you put the applique fabric on the bottom and cut away the top part of the shirt. "Normal" applique involves putting the fabric on top of your shirt. This was the first time that I tried the reverse applique method. The font is Jester from 8CAAP.

Baby Isabella, A Hungry Badger?

 

We have a new baby in the business family. One of Jeff's employees is now a proud father. These are some things I made for her. 

We live in the Badger state, Bucky Badger that is. So the bib is a take on the Wisconsin Badgers and that little YouTube video on the Honey Badger. When I was thinking about a baby gift, I thought I would do a badger applique. This design is from Embroidery Library. Then the idea hit me to use the phrase from the honey badger but turn it into the hungry badger. I believe I used Leon from 8 Claws and a Paw for the saying.

  

I put the same applique design on this little onesie. I used a font from my software package, can't remember which one though.

The little polka dot frame is from Embroidery RN. I can't remember which font I used for the letter "I".

Of course some burp cloths. The large monogram is Sweet Varsity from Planet Applique. The small font is the Steinweiss Script from Hang to Dry. I love that font.

Little buggy design is from Planet Applique.

This cute cow design is from Applique Chick. Jeff and his employees are agronomists that work in the dairy industry so I had to have something dairy related.

Gold Rush Kids

I 

I could be completely in error by using the Gold Rush name for Jordan. I don't really know anything about the San Francisco 49ers. You would not believe how many images of t-shirts and cheerleaders I looked at while trying to make these shirts. Are the cheerleaders the only ones to use the term "Gold Rush".

My daughter's friend was a cheerleader for the 49ers. Now she has two little ones. Lauren met Melanie when she first moved to NYC. Melanie was also a transplant and they became fast friends. I had been wanting to make Mikayla a little cheerleader shirt. I couldn't send Mikayla something and nothing for Jordan.

I drove this to the corner drugstore this afternoon when I was finished for shipping. I really, really wanted to keep this. I think it's one of the cutest things I've made in a while. You can't really tell by the picture but there are three different metallic threads in this design. The pom poms, the shoe ties and the bow. I was going to try using minkee fabric but decided to use a flannel along with the metallic thread. The applique is from Applique for Kids. The font is Kooks from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Mikayla was fortunate enough to be able to cheer last year at a game. I hope she likes the cheerleader.

I used this design before. For Jordan, I went down to a smaller design since Jordan is only three. I used a gold 49er color for the flames. Went I went on the hunt for ideas, I saw a tshirt that had the "9" and the "E" merged together. I decided I HAD to have that on his t-shirt. The applique is from AK Designs. The font is Whoa Nelly from 8CAAP.