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