Embroidered T-shirts to Colour

A couple of summers ago we were headed off to a cottage for a week; two families, each with one child. As we packed, a constant thought was to make sure we had things for the children to do. 

I thought it would be fun for the kids to colour and personalize their own t-shirts. 

I found some open embroidery images at Embroidery Library and stitched them out on plain white t-shirts. 

Doodle Monster Attack

Doodle Arrow 2

The children used Tulip Fabric Markers to colour their image. On the sleeve of the t-shirt they also included the month and the year the colouring was done. 

Before giving the child a marker, ensure that you put a cardboard panel or something similar in between the layers of fabric to prevent the marker from transferring ink from the front to the back of the t-shirt.

Coloured by a 6 yr old

Coloured by a 9 yr old

This was a fast and easy way to create a project that the kids could personalize and make their own. 

Trying Something New

Hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. 

During these times of isolation and a much quieter schedule than we are used to, my husband and I are trying to teach our 8 year old boy some life skills, such as changing tires, cooking, baking, dusting and even sewing. 

I was thinking that I too should take this time to learn something new. We should always strive to keep learning. So, with that in mind, I decided to learn how to create my own digitized images. 

What is a digitized image? Well, it is taking a picture and converting that picture into a stitch file that an embroidery machine can read and stitch out. 

It is quite an art form and there are some very talented people. I am light years away from being one of those people but if I keep practicing I will definitely get better. 

I use Embird Studio software to do all my digitizing. OML Embroidery has a series of YouTube videos that I am following to learn how to digitize. 

The first lesson was - in what order do you need to stitch out an image. You must digitize an image starting with the sections that are in the back and work your way to the sections in the front. 

The image that we digitized was

and here is the result

The great thing with making these test pieces is that I get to, not only practice the digitizing but I get to practice free motion quilting (all the squiggles around the owl, something else that I want to learn) and binding projects. My successful or not so successful owl has been a step in the learning process and now I get to use it as a mug rug or also known as a large coaster. 

I am hoping to digitize a new image, using new techniques, once each month. It is my goal and now that I have put it out there, I am bounded by it. 

I would encourage you to try something new - cake decorating, flower arranging, painting with watercolours, the sky is the limit on what new things we can learn. 

I am sure we would all love to see what you are creating so please post it on social media using the hashtag #craftycanadianladies.