Tim Gunn Gets Crafty

Yesterday, I tried out some fun new fonts. This is my Brother in action. Look at him go!

He's gay by the way. Came bedecked in purple lace. (Do you know how tempting it was to title this blog post "My Brother is Gay?") I like to think he's channeling Tim Gunn. My sewing machine, not my brother. I adore Tim Gunn, but Tim Gunn would never wear purple lace. He's too classy for that. He would say something like, "This purple lace is causing me a great deal of consternation." while knitting his brow and pressing his index finger to his lips. The English teacher in me is delighted by his sophisticated vocabulary. And I love his honesty. He'd probably tell me all this stuff looks homespun though. Sorry, it's late. Enough of that.

Today, I ventured into the world of applique and ruffles. Both are tedious and time consuming if you want the truth. I abandoned the ruffle making when I discovered I needed elastic for the onesie dress. (It took me a few times to learn not to start recipes before making sure I had all the ingredients, too) Ah, a lesson in patience and preparation.

So instead, I tried out a couple of different appliques on a onesie and tried a new style of burp cloth.

This is the onesie on the embroidery hoop. As you can see, you must stretch and manipulate all the excess fabric out of the way.

The good thing about embroidering & appliqueing is that you can sit back and relax or multi-task while the machine embroiders. Take the dogs outside. Teach your puppy tricks. Pour yourself another glass of wine. It takes a few minutes, might as well be productive.

However, with applique you must trim all the fabric from the pattern, and it is a pain. I think having the proper curved trimming scissors help.

Also, the machine doesn't come equipped with a bunch of cute fonts and appliques. You must purchase the digital pattern and connect the machine to your computer via USB port and download them from Etsy or some other crafty site. In order to use more than one letter at a time of said cute fonts, you must also purchase some sort of editing software. I need to figure out which is the best (and has the most reasonable price).

I think the results are worth the trouble though. But mycousinamanda better not change that baby's name. And if she does, it must start with an M!