I'm so 'down with the kids'

Hello there

You may or may not know that I've recently become the very excited owner of a sewing machine/embroidery machine and I've looked at loads of embroidery designs available online. One favourite site is Urban Threads, as their designs are so modern and fresh.

Over the weekend I bought this skull and crossbone design for $2. You buy them in whatever format suits your machine and at the size you want; all sizes and formats are the same price.

It starts off life being inserted into the software and then you set the machine to action. Now this all sounds very easy and it is basically but there are a few essentials which need dealing with. You can re-size letters in the usual select item with the mouse and adjust the box marks around the letter. You cannot do that with images imported in, I found out!

I sewed the 'All Time Low' section without issue and also the star, which I imported for free (gotta love t'internet sometimes). Then came the skull and crossbones which I had made smaller to fit in with the whole design. Boy! You should have heard the racket of the bobbin case jumping up and down like a fool, whilst the poor machine carried on regardless. It normally alerts me if the thread gets trapped or snaps but it didn't bother at all. It was still moving around though and sewing, so I tolerated it for a while but then had to stop as I was concerned about breaking the machine. I left it overnight and then did the larger one in the middle the next day after reading the manual about re-sizing and it said that you have to use a 'design' menu with 'change size' in order to allow the machine to know how to process the stitches. I then made another one, larger, for the other side of the pencil case. Yee hah! No more clanking!

I then had the fun and games of sewing the pencil case together with the zip. I really should do zip stuff more often, as it really irritates me that I seem to have to start from afresh every time I do one. 

I used some Stampin' Up fabric for the lining. The red fabric was just part of my stash, which I had made a pyjama top for Maggie some years ago. I had bought some zips from a sale in a local craft shop about a month ago, which were the perfect size for pencil cases.

It's not perfect but it'll fit her proposed new Sharpie pens, which are all the rage apparently. Back to school in a week, so stationary and school bags are hot topics of conversation. We've had a lovely summer, with lots of days out mixed with relaxing days at home. Let's see what this last week brings us, other than haircuts and piano lesson.

Take care out there