Another Shirred Dress

One of my favourite things to make for Amélie is a shirred dress. They are relatively quick and easy to make, and fit for a long time. A couple of her older ones have been worn as tops as they got too small to be dresses anymore.


You don't need a pattern, just a rectangle of fabric. There is very little wastage as I use the whole width of the fabric and just square it up. This particular dress was extra thrifty as I purchased the fabric (poly-cotton) which was already cheap, on sale and I used (Spotlight) vouchers as well.

Do you have any easy things that you like to make over and over for your kids? Particularly pattern-free things?

Embroidery Design Websites

When I first bought my embroidery machine, I had no idea where to get embroidery designs. I had the disc of designs that came with my machine and Mum hooked me up with Embroidery Library, Anne the Gran, Secrets of and Sue Box. I still buy most of my designs from Embroidery Library, and think that Sue Box is the most exquisite embroidery designer I have seen (just watch one of her free designs stitch out, I guarantee you will be impressed). Since then I have gathered a list of links to other embroidery designs. Some of them I probably will never purchase from, but they all have their own style and it is always nice to have a list of sites to browse when you are looking for something a bit different.

Here is a list of websites where you can buy embroidery designs. It's in no way conclusive. I will probably come back and add some to the list and maybe even do a few little reviews and link from here. Let's consider it a jumping off point;

Anja Rieger Design

Ann The Gran

A Stitch and a Half

Designs By Juju

Divas Doodles

Embroidery Library

EmiOli Design

Five Star Fonts Embroidery

GG Designs Embroidery

Huups

Kunterbunt Design

Newfound Applique

Nobbie Neez Kids

Secrets of Machine Embroidery

Stitch On Time

Sue Box Creations

Tinimi

Urban Threads

Zaubermasche

Have you bought any designs from the above websites? What was your experience like? Do you have a favourite site that I haven't listed? I would love it if you could link me up with any blog posts that you may have done that show machine embroidery that is from these (or other) websites.

Doe, A Deer

From the moment I saw them, I knew I had to have this embroidery design pack from Embroidery Library. The embroidery pack is called Springtime Frolicking Friends and comes in three different sizes. I chose to go with the medium size which I think is quite large, as it turns out. It's the perfect design to pretty up a cheap, plain t-shirt. The design pack has the deer featured with a bunch of other little forest friends, including a rabbit and a skunk (remind you of anyone?). The design I used stitched out beautifully, without any problems.



I hooped the t-shirt and the stabiliser together - I used a cut-away stabiliser, rather than a tear-away. The tricky part for me, was trying to keep the rest of the t-shirt out of the way, which I did using safety pins, bulldog clips and Clover Wonder Clips. The t-shirt I used was a size 3, I don't think I would attempt to do this on a smaller t-shirt, it was really quite fiddly, but I got it to work.



Have you got an embroidery machine? Purchased any good designs lately? Any suggestions as to easier ways to hoop up a small child's t-shirt?