I hope to inspire and entertain you with a lot of sewing and a little of everything else!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Crazy Bus, Crazy Bus...

This may be the most complex machine embroidery I have attempted yet! As usual, I wasted days "over-thinking" what to do for Davy's first day of Kindergarten shirt. I even loaded my USB stick 3 times with designs that I decided I didn't want to use. I found some to purchase, but Davy didn't like them. Then, at the eleventh hour (the day before school starts), I started searching all my favorite ME sites.

I found this cool school bus design at Sharimarie Creations. I knew right away that this was THE ONE. I showed Davy and he liked it, too. However, I noticed her warning that this fits the 6x10 hoops only and though my Viking Designer 1 has a 6x10 hoop, the stitchable space is a bit smaller than other 6x10s. So, I wrote Sharie Marie an email, hoping she could help me out. She was wonderful; she replied with the actual dimensions right away. It was a bit too big for my hoop, so she re-sized it just for me and sent me the new file! This is the kind of customer service that makes me return to a site!
Everything on this shirt is stuff I had on hand; the shirt, the fabric for applique, the vinyl for the windows, the printer photo fabric, etc.
I thought it would be hard to get the photos the right size, but I stitched the window die-line on my stabilizer and put the photos in Adobe Photoshop, cropped, and printed a B&W sample. It fit perfectly on the second try! Wow, it was a charmed day, because the whole thing stitched without a flaw. I was sure I would catch a bit of the t-shirt in the stitching (who hasn't done that before?) or snip the t-shirt fabric when trimming my appliques, but no...all perfect!
I don't know if Davy is as impressed with his shirt as I am, but I think it will be fun for him to bring his siblings to school with him this way. The bus was only meant to hold 4 children, but I put my oldest in as the driver! Please excuse the blacked-out faces; hubby is a computer security person and we are over-cautious.
I have more back-to-school things to share this week, but it has been crazy around here, so it may take a day or two! Please leave a comment if you like; I love reading them!!
Linking to CSI's Back to School Challenge and Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty
 

7 comments:

Cindy said...

That is really just too cute!! I am so glad it all worked out for you and came together so smoothly!! I bet he is proud of his new shirt!!!

Restorative Living said...

Awww, how sweet! Great idea.

Anonymous said...

You're such a thoughtful momma. It's really cute!

Anonymous said...

You're such a thoughtful momma. It's really cute!

RedTedArt said...

Oh my, how sweet is this! And it looks SO GOOD!!!

Would love for you to link up with Kids Get Crafty over at Red Ted Art. The link is every Wednesday and here is this week's http://www.redtedart.com/2010/09/08/kids-get-crafty-eric-carle-homemade-puzzles/

Hopefully see you there?!

Thanks

Maggy

Elisabeth Rose said...

Thanks everyone! I had fun doing this project and it's great to hear your nice comments!
Maggy, I did link to your Crafty Weds and became a follower, too!

RedTedArt said...

Fabulous! Thank you Elisabeth!! So nice to have you "on board" (get the pun.. ahem.. ok..)

See you again soon :-)

Maggy

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