Archives for June 2011

I had 7 items to monogram this week ~ 1 simple letter on each. Folks, I managed to mess up 4 of the 7 items, which meant I had to order 3 replacements and drag 3 kids to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond yesterday in the 100 degree heat to find the other replacement. Can you say FRUSTRATED?

These are Bunk Pockets. I did some of these a couple of weeks ago with NO PROBLEM! This time, I was using the wrong size fast frame (which I figured out after messing up 3), so the machine was getting to a point and then bumping itself out of line. I tried to salvage these and the A & E aren’t too too bad, but I ended up redoing them and have 3 more on order to redo the rest. 🙁 I used the fast frame and you have to go INSIDE the front pocket, so it was tight, but doable with a PR650! I went down 1 size fast frame after messing a few up and it was much much better. BTW, these hang on dorm room bed posts and are great for holding cell phones, Ipods, etc. Graduation gifts!

As you can see here the right side of the A is missing it’s swirl! This is Sunny MWP font. This was after I picked out the messed up part!

For the B it jumped to the left and I picked it out. I tried to go back and fill it in, but it was too hard. Browder might not mind?? This is my new MWP Library font. I may rig something up for him, even though he has no phone or Ipod. He can stick something in there!

And for the E it got off track and again, I tried to find my place and start over. As you can see it just didn’t “fit” right. Not too terribly bad, but I redid it! This is MWP Exact Script.

As if messing up 3 dorm pockets wasn’t enough, I tried to monogram this laundry bag at about 11:00 Wednesday night (after I had already goofed on the 3 pockets)! First I tried to monogram the clear pocket. I got the fast frame in there but the pocket was too small for my machine. When I took the fast frame/sticky stabilizer out, the sticky reside stayed behind on the inside of the clear pocket. SOOOOOO….. I thought “I’ll take the pocket off and try to wet it and get rid of the holes and just monogram it“. Nope! The holes would not go away!

Normally my sticky stabilizer doesn’t “stay” on anything, but it sure stuck to this clear vinyl pocket! As you can see here I took it off trying to salvage the laundry bag.

My next brilliant idea was to sew a frame patch to try to cover the holes from the pocket, and then monogram an “E” inside. A) the frame patch did not cover the holes and B) I left the room and the top of the laundry bag got caught up in the frame.

FAIL * FAIL * FAIL * FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the packaging for the laundry bag. I should have just monogrammed ON the bag and not tried the clear pocket. OH WELL! This also came from dormco.com.

So…. yesterday after day 4 of Vacation Bible School, I drug took all 3 kids to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond on the search for a similar black laundry bag! Did I mention it is 100 degrees here? Taking 3 kids anywhere in 100 degree heat is EXHAUSTING! I actually found this one (which is nicer than the one I messed up) and monogrammed an E in turquoise on the pocket! It turned out PERFECT! This one was $9.99 and I had a 20% off coupon.

So… I got paid $36 to monogram these 7 items (1 letter on each) and spent $23.77 on the replacement bunk pouches and $8.79 on the replacement laundry bag. So, all in all I made $3.44 on this gig! It probably took me a gallon of gas to drive to Target & BBB yesterday, so we’ll call it a wash!

Good times! I guess we learn best from our mistakes?

We close on our new house Wednesday MONDAY! We aren’t moving in officially until June 29th. I’m excited and also very overwhelmed! We’re painting a couple of rooms hopefully before we move in. I have no idea what colors. I have to do Mallory’s room from scratch since she left our other house in her crib. We are 1 bed shy for the house and will eventually need other new furniture (den, dining room). We also plan to replace ALL OF THE CABINETS, which means redoing the kitchen (again ~ eventually/at some point/hopefully in the near future…). Should be interesting! Pray for my survival!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Last week I monogrammed the 7 towels pictured below. They came from WALMART and are sold individually in the store (for probably pretty cheap!). I did these for a friend who was heading to the beach with her family and wanted monogrammed towels for all of the grandkids (and for her and G-Dad). I think G-Dad is the cutest grandfather name! Anyway, I did the boy towels in Atilla (Monogram Wizard Plus) and the girl towels in Curly Q (with the exception of the J in Julia which is Uniblock; ulia is Curly Q). I thought they turned out cute and when I mentioned doing them on Facebook (along with 8 pillowcases that I didn’t take pics of), I had several comments on monogramming towels!

I worked for G-Dad for 10 years before I “retired” in to embroidery!

Today I monogrammed this beach towel from Target and it was a whopping $5.50! Orange, of course! Anyway, I took photos along the way so here is my post on monogramming towels!

First, I measure my center and mark it with an air erasable pen.

Here are the stabilizers I use for doing towels (and blankets, terry bibs, furry stuff, etc) ~ Iron on Tearaway Stabilizer (this is Sulky brand) and Solvy (also Sulky).

I iron the tearaway on the opposite side.

BTW, I always monogram towels on the opposite end of the tag!

I have my solvy on top and I’m ready to hoop!

Here it is hooped, and as you can see my center dot is pretty well lined up with the center of the hoop. This is by luck, not any method!

For this towel I chose my NEW Library Monogram Wizard Plus font that I purchased today for $7.99! Here is how I did it and why:

Letter Width: 85 ~ I made the letters skinnier so that I could squeeze the name inside my 5×7 hoop and I wanted them as tall as possible. Normally letter width is 100. Skinner=taller.

Kerning: 4 ~ kerning is making the letters closer together (-4 would be farther apart). Again, I did this so I could squeeze inside the 5×7 hoop and this allows me to make the letters a little bigger because they are closer together with less space in between them. Normal kerning (spacing) is set at 0!

Letter Size: 1.66 ~ If you can see on the bottom, with all of these factors my name is 6.99″ wide and 1.78″ tall. By making the letter width skinnier (85 vs. 100) and by moving the letters closer together (kerning 4), I was able to add .36″ to the height of my name! I know this is confusing but if you play around with the letter width and kerning you’ll see what I mean!

** ONE MORE THING… I like to use FILL STITCH on towels & blankets versus satin stitch! I think it covers the fluff of the towel and/or blanket and there is no looping. I was at a friend’s house once and she had some Pottery Barn monogrammed hand towels. I noticed they were fill stitch so since then, that’s the way I’ve done towels!

Since my machine is on a tool chest and not a stand, I put my hooped towel on my machine so that the excess hangs down in front. If this were a heavy blanket, I might let it rest on a chair in front of the stand. Since my towel is technically upside down, I rotated my name so that it sews right!

Ready to sew! I chose turquoise thread on the orange – LOVE!

Here is the completed towel and the monogram sews on top of the Solvy ~ that way the thread is not buried in the fluff of the towel! When you’re done you just pull it all off. Water will dissolve it also if you miss any. You also just pull off all of the iron on tearaway from the back of the towel.

Here it is! I also bought the same towel in lime/white stripes as well as hot pink/white stripes for G & Sissy! Did I mention that I LOVE ORANGE?????

I know this is very basic and most of you already know this! But, for the beginners, here is my post on monogramming towels! When I first started I messed up my first towel because I had no clue I needed Solvy on top!