Embroidery for Children – Eileen's Machine Embroidery Blog

Archive of ‘Embroidery for Children’ category

Instant New Baby Gift

November 9, 2019 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Digitizing, Eileen Roche, Embroidery for Children, Inspiration Software, Lettering, Uncategorized, Word Art in Stitches / 4 Comments

As embroiderers, we are always driven to create a custom gift for new parents but it can be difficult to find time to create something special. For the new parents, there’s nothing quite like seeing the statistics of your new baby etched in thread on pretty fabric. Inspiration’s Word Art In Stitches has just what you need to put a smile on the parents’ faces.

Subway blocks were added as a free update to the software several months ago and I think many of us forget they are in the software. Let’s take a look. Open a new file in Word Art in Stitches and click on the Library icon under the Properties Box (lower right corner). Scroll to the bottom of the list.

Here you’ll find nine different blocks for baby, new home, wedding and more. Select the first one, Baby 4×4. Once the design appears on the screen, select it, right click and Ungroup.

It’s so easy to change the name, date and weight to customize the block for the new baby. Just click on the name and type the new name in the Properties Box.

Select the name, drag one of the side handles to stretch the text to fit the space. It’s that easy!

Do the same for the date and weight.

The block is 4×4 but you can resize it to fit your needs. Wasn’t that simple! You can use as framed artwork, a custom block in a quilt or as a quilt label. I’m sure you’ll find many ways to use the Subway blocks.

Remember to join me on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 1:00 CST on Facebook Live and YouTube Live to see gift #4 in our holiday gift making countdown!. I hope you had a chance to see gift #5 on Nov. 7 – it was one of my all time favorites! If you missed it, you can watch it anytime, check it out!

Houston is Ready…

October 28, 2017 by eileenroche / Current Posts, Eileen Roche, Embroidery for Children, Nancy Zieman, Software Saturday, Uncategorized / 7 Comments

If you’ve been hesitant about heading to Quilt Fest next weekend in Houston, don’t be, come on down! The George Brown Convention Center is in pristine condition after serving as host to Hurricane Harvey evacuees. This weekend is Quilt Market, the industry’s largest convention to the trade, and attendance appears to be up as quilt shop owners flock to Houston.

But that’s not the only reason to be in Houston this weekend. Just a block away from the convention center, the Houston Astros are in the World Series at Orange Maid Park! It’s not very often that you stumble across a display like this:

Here’s a closer look at each showcase:

Quilt Market 2017

2017 World Series

What’s so great about Quilt Market? This is THE event to see new product, new fabric lines and beautiful quilts. What we see here this weekend will hit be hitting stores soon – sometimes immediately or a few months down the road.

The day before the show floor opens, Schoolhouse classes are staged in every available classroom on the second floor (this place is massive!). I assisted Deanna Springer in Nancy Zieman’s class, I Sew for Fun. Two of Nancy’s granddaughters appeared on the PBS Sewing with Nancy show and the book that highlights that series is titled, I Sew For Fun.

It’s a new line of product geared at the younger generation and includes child-friendly notions from Clover. Check out this retractable seam ripper – perfect for little hands (and big ones!).

Martingale published Nancy’s charming illustrated child’s book.

Easy in the hoop embroidery designs from Amazing Designs make computerized embroidery fun for little techies.

You’ll find a user-friendly software program, Click, Print and Stitch. All of these products will be available at your sewing machine dealer or Nancy’s Notions very soon.

This whole concept from Nancy is focused on teaching adults how to teach children to sew. After all, it’s common to have a young assistant in the kitchen but you wouldn’t let them loose with needles, knives and hot plates. In the sewing room, the little stitcher needs a big stitcher to get started.

Today, the Quilt Market officially opens and I’m excited about visiting with our cherished machine advertisers: Baby Lock, Bernina, Brother, Elna, Janome, Viking and Pfaff. They spend hours and hours designing their booths and samples to inspire shop owners. I love seeing the samples they make to highlight new machine features and accessories (hoops, feet and more!).

This is often the only time of the year I get to visit with designers in person instead of over the phone or email. I’m often humbled with the amount of work that goes into creating their displays. I know how difficult it is to be a one-woman show! Their samples and product bloom with creativity as they pour their heart and soul into every stitch.

On Monday, the doors of Quilt Market will close and the floor will be transformed to accept thousands of quilters for Quilt Fest. By then, the World Series will be over and the town will be ready to host it’s favorite convention – Quilt Fest! So come on down, Houston is waiting for you!

A few dozen eggs

April 5, 2017 by Denise Holguin / Blue Hair Girl, Current Posts, Embroidery for Children, Holiday Stitching, Just for Fun, Quick Gifts, Wildcard Wednesday / 25 Comments

Project Highlights:

Put your stash of embroidery, crafting and sewing supplies to use.
Make gifts for family, friends or residents in nursing homes and senior centers.
Experiment with color!
Relax with this creative and productive outlet.

As a hoarder of scrapbook paper, I don’t actually make anything. Instead, I flip through the stack of paper to admire the colors and patterns. The papers are too pretty to waste on just anything. Someday I’ll make something special.

That someday is now!

I volunteered to make Easter cards for a local senior center.

It was a bold and confident move to volunteer. But then reality set in. Exactly how will I make the cards?

The answer was easy: with my embroidery machine!

Embroidery Designs
Floral Easter Eggs from Kreations by Kara. (I used Egg 5.)

The inspiration came from two cards I received from a dear friend, and regular contributor to the magazine, Joanne Banko. She used felt to embroider the cards. The cards were so fun to receive and I love the technique. I keep one on my desk at work and one on the refrigerator at home.

Materials

Assorted colors of embroidery thread
Card stock Paper
Felt: I purchased 8 sheets of pre-cut felt from a big box store in several colors. I fit 2 Easter eggs per sheet. Once I stitched 16 Easter egg designs, I realized I was committed to this task. I purchased yardage of felt (on sale at this time of year!). I was able to hoop the fabric to fit more designs. I chose to use white felt because it gave me more freedom with thread colors.

Instructions
I cut the felt into long strips wide enough to fit a 5″ x 7″ standard hoop or Snap Hoop Monster. I rotated the embroidery design 90 degrees to make the design horizontal.

Stitch the design on the entire strip of fabric. Leave enough room for trimming around each design. The design I used has multiple thread colors. For variety I stitched some eggs in one color while others I stitched in multiple colors. If you have little ones that want to help, consider having them select the thread colors. You can’t go wrong with this project.

I also considered the recipients and what colors they might like. Some embroidered eggs are more masculine with navy blue, brown and emerald green. Those turned out to be among my favorites.

As the embroidery machine was stitching, I cut card stock paper. I used 12” x 12” sheets of card stock. I cut the sheets in half to make two cards per sheet. Then I scored the card to make the fold. To conserve paper, you could just make a single sided card.

Once the Easter eggs were finished stitching, I trimmed close to the edges, leaving about a ¼ inch around the design.

I took the opportunity to pull out all my craft supplies, including ribbons, trim, buttons and brads. I’ve also made it my challenge to use up nearly all my scrapbook paper—even the ‘special’ paper with extra sparkles. It doesn’t do me any good hoarding the supplies and it is fun to find interesting ways to decorate each card.

I was bored with the solid colored card stock so to add texture I pulled out my little New Home sewing machine. It doesn’t have as many features as I’m used to (where’s the automatic needle threader?) but it has decorative stitches ideal for my cards.

Once you’re happy with the added embellishments, use a hot glue gun to attach the design to the card stock. Be sure to add a sentiment inside the card.

Can you tell which one is my favorite? 😉 I was excited to find a use for the hounds-tooth paper and the bow button.

At the time of this blog post, I’ve stitched 45 Easter egg designs. My first goal is to reach 50—which will be done tonight. Then the new goal will be 75… because that’s the Blue Hair Girl way!

Embroidering on Onesies

December 28, 2016 by eileenroche / Alignment and Placement, Applique, Clothing, Current Posts, Eileen Roche, Embroidery for Children, Hooping, Stitching on Knits, Wearables / 52 Comments

Is there anything sweeter than welcoming a new baby into the family right at the holidays? It brings the meaning of Christmas home…time to focus on the important things in live and leave the mall hustle and bustle to others. One of our team members, Sandy Griggs, became a first-time grandma on Dec. 18^th to Bo Braun – a beautiful, healthy 8.3 pound cherub.

We couldn’t be more thrilled for her family and since Sandy is a previous collegiate softball star, I thought it was only appropriate to stitch a onesie for Bo. It’s a little cold up there right now but come spring training, he’ll be ready for batting practice!

I purchased a baseball applique design at Applique For Kids and added lettering to personalize it for Sandy.

Here are the easy steps for stitching an onesie. Fuse polymesh cut-away stabilizer to the wrong side of the onesie. Place the onesie on a work surface and position the Children’s Perfect Placement Kit Center Chest template on the shirt. Match the shirt’s vertical center with the template’s vertical line and the curved neckline at the bottom of the ribbing. Place a target sticker in the opening.

Turn the onesie INSIDE out. Slide the top magnetic frame of Snap Hoop Monster into the shirt, centering the target sticker. You’ll have to peek into the garment to see if it’s centered. Attach Hoop Guard to the frame and pull the shirt over the Hoop Guard as shown.

Carefully transport the hoop to the machine (use the magnetic shield that came with the hoop). Attach the hoop the machine. Use the machine’s editing features to center the needle over the target sticker. Rotate the design so that it will stitch in the proper orientation.

Stitch the first color, the placement guide.

Place the applique fabric over the outline and stitch color 2, the tackdown. Trim the applique close to the stitching and continue with the embroidered details.

Remove the hoop from the machine, turn the onesie inside out and trim away the excess stabilizer. Fuse a soft, tricot knit interfacing over the wrong side of the embroidery to protect the baby’s skin.

If you like this baseball applique, then there’s a good chance you could win a $20 gift certificate at Applique For Kids. Just leave us a comment and we’ll pick FIVE winners next week! Since Applique for Kids designs are just $2.00, that’s 10 designs! Pop on over to Applique for Kids and tell me what’s your favorite category of designs – they’ve got plenty!

Happy New Year!

Glitter Princess!

April 8, 2015 by eileenroche / Applique, Clothing, Color and Design, Eileen Roche, Embroidery for Children, Embroidery Tips / 65 Comments

You’re never too old or too young to celebrate a special birthday! Recently, Stephanie Sanders, my loyal employee of 14 years, approached me with a request to stitch a shirt for her daughter’s upcoming 2^nd birthday.

We discussed options and thought it would be fun to stitch an applique crown and a number 2. Since little girls love sparkles we knew the applique fabric would have to be something glittery and fun.

This was the perfect opportunity to use Glitter Sheets from BFC-Stash. The sheets are available as sets and individual sheets in countless colors. Instructions are included with the Embroidery Glitter for steps on how to use and care for the product.

I used embroidery software to create the embroidery design. If you missed the Software Saturday lesson on the blog click here.

I could have placed an entire square of the Glitter Sheet on the applique then trimmed it away once the tack down stitch was complete. But this was a great opportunity to use the Brother™ ScanNCut to create pre-cut applique shapes. So I sent the applique artwork files from Perfect Embroidery Pro to my Brother Scan N Cut. I loaded a gold glitter sheet, pressed the button and Voila! A gold crown, perfectly cut!

I was so excited I quickly picked up a pink glitter sheet and repeated the steps for the digit. Gee, that stuff is addictive!

Once the design was created I fused Sulky Soft ‘n Sheer™ Extra cut-away stabilizer to the wrong side of the t-shirt. Then I hooped the t-shirt in Snap Hoop Monster.

When it was time to stitch the design I placed the pre-cut Glitter sheets on the placement stitching. The sheets were tacked down then finished with the satin stitching. The final step is to use a Teflon pressing cloth to iron the embroidery using the linen heat setting. (330-365 degrees). Complete care instructions are included with the Glitter Sheets.

The Glitter Sheets are light-weight and move with the garment. Perfect for a little one that is always on the move!

The final step was to finish the back of the garment with Sulky Tender™ Touch. This added step makes the shirt more comfortable for little ones to wear by covering the bobbin stitches.

Now the little princess is ready for her party!

If you’ve missed out on this month’s Designs Plus Newsletter, be sure to stop by for a visit. Sulky is offering 3 free embroidery designs and a limited time special offer on their products.

Here’s your assignment this week:

I had so much fun working with the Glitter Sheets from BFC- Stash on this project. The wide range of sheet color choices is my favorite aspect of the product. What is your favorite color Glitter Sheet to use? Post your comments and one random winner will be selected to win a $25 gift certificate to the Designs in Machine Embroidery website.

Multi-Needle Monday: How Many People Can You Fit in Your Sewing Room?

August 11, 2014 by eileenroche / Behind the Scenes, Embroidery for Children, Embroidery Techniques, Just for Fun, Multi-Needle, Stitching Sisters / 15 Comments

I don’t get a lot of company at my house but when I do, I love it. Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting my sister, her three daughters and two grandchildren. We wound up in my sewing room! Tons of room to spread out all over the house, but here we were huddled around the multi-needle machine.

My sister, Mary Pat Palombo, granddaughter Bella, daughter Christin, grandson Atticus, daughters Regina and Kim.

Let me give you a little background. A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about my niece Kim’s baby shower. I shared an image of the all of the beautiful handmade gifts she received.

Well…Kim had a boy, Atticus, a beautiful red-haired Irish lad and recently made the trip to Texas to visit her sister, Christin. Just so happens, I live about 30 minutes from Christin so when family comes to the Lone Star State, I usually get to see them too.

Why did we wind up in my sewing room? It seems Atticus has a ‘lovie’ that he adores. Mom Kim wanted to make sure his lovie could be returned if he ever misplaced (dropped, threw, stashed or hid) it. Kim’s a pretty smart girl! She asked if I could embroider is name and her phone number on the binding of the lovie. I jumped at the chance because I remember my Stitching Sister Marie Zinno telling me how easy it is to do. That’s all I need, a few words from Marie saying, “Go on, you can do it!”

But she’s right; it’s super easy with a flat hoop and a built-in scanner. I hooped the lovie with tear-away stabilizer, keeping the binding within the sewing field. Since the hoop is flat, I pulled on the lovie to make sure it was taut in the frame.

I used the built-in text to write his name and her phone number. Added a basting box around the text then scanned the hoop. Notice the head of the puppy extends above the frame. I forced it down when it got close to the needle bar during the scanning process. I didn’t have to worry about the puppy’s head during stitching as the binding is positioned at the back of the hoop – the needle bar never traveled near the head.

I moved the text to fit within the binding and selected a thread to match for security reasons. I figured if someone found the lovie, they would call with the intent to put a smile on a baby’s face, not harm the mom. But let’s not make the bad guy’s job easier by using dark brown thread!

What fun in the sewing room! Tell me, do you like having company in your sewing room?

Embroidering on Children’s Shirts

May 21, 2014 by eileenroche / Applique, Clothing, Embroidery for Children, Wearables / 61 Comments

We received a message from Melinda on our Facebook page asking for some tips for embroidering on children’s shirts. Here are my top 10 tips for embellishing children’s shirts with machine embroidery.

1. Keep it light. Kids hate stiff, itchy embroidery so select embroidery designs that have a low-stitch count.

2. Use applique to add impact. Fun colors and funky fabrics infuse a lot of spunk into plain t-shirts without adding the dreaded bullet-proof embroidered shield!

3. Look for applique designs that are on the small size – under 3” x 3”. Jumbo designs overwhelm a small figure.

4. Get the placement right. Depend on the Children’s Perfect Placement Kit to help with locating the correct position for designs on children’s garments, size infant to youth large. Eileen's Children's Perfect Placement Kit

5. Ask the child (if old enough) for input on favorite colors, shapes, characters and designs. If they help design it, they’ll love wearing it.

6. Rely on fusible polymesh stabilizer to eliminate the stretch in knits. It’s a strong cut-away and very comfortable.

7. Don’t be afraid to slit a side seam to make hooping easier. Knits don’t ravel so you won’t have to worry about frayed edges if you don’t have a serger.

8. After all embroidery is complete, add a fusible lightweight, tricot knit interfacing to the wrong side of the embroidery. This delicate, sheer cover-up will camouflage the bobbin threads and eliminate the ‘itch’ factor.

9. Lighten up your expectations. Kids are not only finicky but they grow so fast! Save the heirloom techniques for really memorable occasions when the effort will be worth it.

10. Look for ways to extend an active child’s wardrobe by adding embroidered borders to lengthen hemlines and cover stains. You’ll be glad you did if the child gets another season out of a garment.

Here’s your assignment this week:

Tell us what your favorite children’s theme is for the Summertime goodies you are crafting. FOUR lucky comments will be chosen to receive $25 to spend at the Applique for Kids website. Thanks and good luck!

The winner of last week’s assignment is:

Here’s your assignment this week:
What vintage goodies from your grandmother, great-grandmother or other special family member do you have tucked away? It’s time to pull the linens out and use them as inspiration! For those feeling especially social, take a photo and post to our Facebook page! (No worries, everyone who just posts a comment on the blog has a chance to win!)One comment will be randomly selected and will win a $25 shopping spree to the Designs in Machine Embroidery website.

Designs in Machine Embroidery Shopping Spree

And the winner is…Shumidog “Even though most of my aunts at one time worked at the Coats and Clark factory in Central Falls, RI which made cotton embroidery thread none embroidered. Knitting and crochet were their forte and I have a number of items including doilies and bureau scarves.”

Multi-Needle Monday | Applique and Onesies – Oh, My!

April 28, 2014 by eileenroche / Alignment and Placement, Applique, Clothing, Embroidery for Children, Embroidery Techniques, Embroidery Tips, Hooping, Multi-Needle, Stitching on Knits, Wearables / 17 Comments

Applique and stitching on onesies have always challenged my multi-needle machine skills. First, trimming applique in those deep standard hoops is tricky on a small item. I can’t seem to get my scissors to trim close enough to the stitch line in those hoops without nipping the base fabric. And of course, hooping a onesie when the design requires a larger than 4” x 4” hoop is almost impossible. Multi-Needle Monster Hoop solves both of those problems. Let me show you how.

Iron fusible polymesh stabilizer to the wrong side of the onesie shirt front extending the stabilizer above the neckline if your design has to stitch close to the ribbing.

Tape the embroidery design template onto the onesie. I use PAL to make sure the template is square on the garment before I tape it down.

Slide the magnetic frame (magnets side up) inside the shirt. Place the metal Monster Hoop frame on top, aligning the frames.

Lift the frame and pull the back of the onesie over the frame. The metal arms of the frame will hold the onesie in place.

Check the back of the hoop to make sure nothing is caught under the hoop. Attach the hoop to the machine, center the design on the template’s crosshair and begin to stitch the applique.

After tacking down the applique fabric, remove the hoop and place it on a flat surface while trimming. Hold the hoop by the metal arms, not the frames, while transporting the hoop.

Reattach the hoop to the machine and slide your hand under the design area to make sure nothing is caught under the hoop.

There you have it! Never been easier.

How to Stitch a Onesie with Hoop Guard

March 12, 2014 by eileenroche / Alignment and Placement, Clothing, Embroidery for Children, Hooping, Wearables / 268 Comments

Don’t you hate it when you’re working on a large (or small project) and as soon as you turn your back on the machine, a portion of the fabric (that’s not in the hoop) falls into the sewing field? It never seems to fail that the more time and materials I have invested in a project, the more trouble happens down the road. Last summer, I was quilting several large quilts – bed size quilts – on my embroidery machine. I spent many hours, repositioning the quilt to quilt a new area and several times, the quilt roll would fall into the sewing field. Luckily, I was nearby, so I was able to avoid disaster. But it got me thinking, couldn’t there be a device that creates a barrier between the roll and the sewing field?

After a trip to the hardware store and a bit of experimentation, I met with our engineer. Several prototypes later, Hoop Guard was born. I’m so excited about this new product! I’ve used it on quilts and bulky terrycloth towels but I recently discovered how handy it is for small items too. Let me show you how it works for an onesie.

Fuse polymesh cut-away stabilizer to the wrong side of the front of the suit. Mark the location of the design and turn the snap suit inside out.

Since a baby’s snap suit is small, select a small Monster Snap Hoop (4” x 4”). Separate the metal frame from the top magnetic frame.

Place the onesie over the metal frame, with the suit’s front (design area) laying on the frame. Position the neck at the bottom (closest to you) of the frame.

Attach the Hoop Guard to the bottom of the magnetic frame (the part closest to you when attached to the machine). Hoop Guard snaps onto the bottom of the magnetic frame with the barrier on the outside of the frame.

Insert the magnetic frame with the Hoop Guard into the suit from the leg opening. Thread Hoop Guard through the neck.

Pull the bulk of the suit over the Hoop Guard, exposing the design area.

Attach the hoop to the machine. Verify the top and bottom frames are aligned with your hands. Trace the design to verify the needle will only stitch on the design area.

Add water soluble stabilizer over the design area and stitch the design.

Voila!

I love Hoop Guard – it’s so handy for many embroidery tasks. If you’d like to learn more about it, you can watch a video here.

Here’s your assignment this week:

Tell us what project you would stitch first with a Hoop Guard. One lucky comment below will be chosen to receive their very own Hoop Guard!

The winner of last week’s assignment is:

Do you have a favorite accent that you like to add to a monogram? Maybe a pineapple, pine cone, seashell or something along those lines? One comment will be chosen to receive a gift certificate to the DIME store for $25!

The winner is… Lisha “I like to use a tiny honeybee or fleur de lis for myself” – Congratulations Lisha!

We’re So Proud!

May 8, 2013 by eileenroche / Alignment and Placement, Applique, Be The Difference, Behind the Scenes, Clothing, Color and Design, Contests!, Continuous Embroidery, Digitizing, Embroidery for Children, Embroidery Techniques, Embroidery Tips, Home Decor, Hooping, In-the-hoop, Just for Fun, Lace, Lettering, Special Offers, Stabilizer Tips, Wearables / 86 Comments

Toot, toot! Beep, beep! A special digital issue of Designs in Machine Embroidery is free for you – just click here to access. You’ll find projects, free embroidery designs, videos from our sponsors and access to leading companies in the embroidery industry.

Wondering what’s inside? It’s packed with educational material for newbies, intermediate and advanced embroiderers. Devour the expert information on stabilizers and how to embroider on ribbon, polos and t-shirts! Learn to create continuous embroidery with confidence; stitch a little something for the man in your life and develop your designer’s eye – all in this one special issue!

Download the familiar .zip file, unzip and inside you’ll find an exciting interactive Adobe Acrobat PDF file you can read and enjoy from the convenience of your desktop computer or laptop. Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to achieve full interactivity and flip through the pages, zoom in on projects and print whatever you’d like. Use the arrows on your keyboard to navigate through the pages: advance by clicking the arrows pointing down or right while the arrows pointing up or left will take you to a previous page.

Look for the mouse icon and click on it to activate the zoom feature and more. View the embedded videos by clicking the play button and enjoy.

We made it simple to navigate, easy to view and inspirational to read – I think you’ll see why we’re so proud of our new digital issue. My hat is off to the whole Designs team for making this happen – led by Sam Solomon, Denise Holguin, Stephanie Smith and Sandy Griggs. Designs wouldn’t be here without that team – they’re awesome! I think you’ll agree when you see what they’ve created.

A very special thank you to our valued sponsors: Brother, Embrilliance, Embroidery Library, Five Star Fonts, Janome America, HoopSisters, SWAKembroidery and Urban Threads – Enjoy!

Here’s your assignment this week:

Download our FREE digital edition of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine. Give it a read and enjoy all of the interactivity, photo zooming abilities, videos and beautiful photography captured for each stunning project. Then, come back and leave us a comment on what you think about it – good or bad, we can take it. One lucky reader will win a gift certificate to Designs in Machine Embroidery for $25!

You can use that $25 to buy anything on our website including a 1 year subscription to our print magazine offered at the special price of $24.97 for a limited time only.

The winner of last week’s assignment is:

Go over and give Craftsy a looksy! Tell us what classes interest you or if you’ve already taken a class on Craftsy – tell us what you love about it. One lucky reader will receive a link for a complimentary download of Eileen’s new class, The Machine Embroidered T-Shirt!

And the winner is…“I’ve been checking out Craftsy website, and some of the free classes. My sister told me about this site, she had taken a class and loved it! I would really LOVE to win the chance to take the T-shirt class. I have a fear to try new things, but I’m sure taking the class would give me more confidence. Thanks for sharing your embroidery expertise.” – Jane B.

Congratulations Jane, we hope you enjoy your class and share your experience with us!

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