Cheer for the USA!

 The Olympic Games are almost upon us!

I come from a swimming family. Started when I was young, became a lifeguard at 15, started coaching when I graduated, and watched my siblings in their swimming pursuits. 

All three of my siblings swam in college. I guess I should say they swam at a major university with other top athletes, some of those Olympic medalists.

Me, eh, not so much. 

I spent most of my time in the Athletic Training Room with a bum shoulder. Sometimes we just aren't built the same way.

So, instead I pursued Athletic Training and followed around a bunch of swimmers (and other athletes) taking care of all of their ailments. Ahhhh, the stories I could tell if I hadn't signed a confidentiality agreement. 

Oh don't worry, I'm just a full time mom now.

Working to pay off her student loans. 

From 12 years ago.

Yeah, I know.

I didn't even need college to find a guy. I married my high school sweet heart!

Anyway, enough about that tangent.

All that just to say we enjoy watching swimming in our house.

My kids like to pretend play.

 They LOVE this set of Felt Medals.

Don't worry, full picture PDF instructions are included in the purchase.

If you haven't made any ITH items, here's a quick overview.

 You'll stabilize your WSS and stitch a placement line. For the medals, there is an extra placement stitch to add the ribbon. Or you can skip it if you have other ideas on how you want to use the file.

Add your felt on top and stitch.

Flip your hoop over.

Add your felt on the back side of the hoop. Use some adhesive so it doesn't fall off while you stitch!

Stitch the final tackdowns.

Unhoop and trim. Be careful not to cut the ribbon!

Fold the ribbon and add snaps or hook & loop.

 And you are done!

The Felt Medal Clippies are a smaller version of the medals.

There is no extra placement line to add ribbon. 

If you want to add the ribbon while in the hoop, just run the original placement line over and over until you have the ribbon secure. 

Or, you can add the feltie to a ribbon montage after you've stitched and cut it out.

Either way,

GO USA!

Turning your feltie into a frayed embellishment.

 Let's review how to make a feltie, shall we?

Here, I am using the (Frayed) Heart Flower Feltie

Hoop either a clear water soluble stabilizer or a tear away stabilizer (personal preference).

Stitch out your placement line. 

Because I wanted to give you options and I like options, this feltie stitches out THREE hearts :)

Lay your fabric OVER the placement lines. 

 Tackdown!

Lay your fabric over the placement line for the larger heart.

More tackdown!

Now flip your hoop OVER! Place your fabric on the BACK/UNDERSIDE of the hoop. Use adhesive spray to adhere the fabric.

Final tackdown!

Oh wait! There is another set of tackdown lines. Let's have some more fun :)

I have been using the word "fabric" instead of "felt" in this post. 

Have you noticed?

Who says you can't use fabric on your felties?

Lay a few layers of fabric over your placement lines. 

 Tackdown!

 Lay a few layers of fabric over the large heart.

 Tackdown!

 Don't forget to trim if your colors are overlapping!

 Again, flip your hoop over.

 I added a layer of flannel and a layer of felt.

Use some adhesive spray so it sticks.

Turn your hoop over and stitch out the final tackdown lines!

 Trim.

I allowed 1/8th inch of excess on my feltie.

I trimmed my frayed design a little more loosely. Once trimmed, "fray" your edges.

(The felt I used on the back is for additional support. I did trim that down to size.)

Assemble.

Using a hot glue gun or fabric glue, attach the hearts in the pattern that you like best!

 But have some fun!

How many ways can you stitch out cute?

How to make feltie hair clips using a digital embroidery file.

I have two daughters (and two boys, but this post has nothing to do with them); a 6 year old who thinks she is 16 and spends all her time in the bathroom playing with her hair and a newly turned 2 year old who barely has any hair.

I've made my older daughter a few clips, mostly to match her clothes or the seasons. She likes "big" so she stays with the korker bows.

But, I like felties. They are cute and match exactly for any occassion!

From now on you will see a lot of appliques offered in a set with matching felties (at a discounted price)! Once you know your way around the items needed, putting together a matching hair clip takes only an additional 20 minutes. At most!

Let me show you.

When you buy your design, I will included a "Notes" sheet. PLEASE read this as it will direct you to start, stop, and add additional felt at the correct times. Usually there are less then 10 steps and NO trimming until the end!!

 First of all you want to hoop your stabilizer. I am using a medium weight Water Soluble Stabilizer here (I would have bought heavy but can't find it in the stores). I haven't washed any of my felties, but the WSS isn't as noticeable and easy to get rid of in case these were a gift. Now, if I knew my felt were going to be white or black, I would probably use regular stabilizer since WSS is more expensive.

Now stitch out your placement line. 

 Place your felt on top and stitch out your tackdown line. Remember, this is not an applique and all the threads used will show (so make sure you get your color scheme set up first!).

Tackdown complete! 

Stop your machine (according to the directions). 

Turn your hoop over to look at the back of your design. Some designs will have a lot of detail stitched on (like the Argyle Heart Feltie) while others will have an extra layer of felt (like the Winged Heart Feltie).

 For the designs with extra stitching, we'll clean them up by adding a layer of felt to the back side of the hoop.

That's right, spray and stick the felt to the underside of the hoop/design. 

 Now, turn your hoop over and lock into place. Double check to make sure you didn't lose your felt (see the bottom piece still attached under there?). 

And stitch your final tackdown stitches.

Once the design is finished stitching, unhoop and trim.

Slowly!

Now take a look at the back of your feltie. It should be nicely covered.

Trim any lengthy threads and if you are OCD, add some glue to make sure they won't unravel.

Now, everyone makes clippies differently. 

I use a double prong alligator clip (get the good sturdy kind!) and I'll show you why in a few. 

I bought a cheap (and I emphasize cheap) jelly roll pan to use as my clippie making area. I have certain lengths measured and marked on my pan so I can easily cut my ribbon to the perfect length every time. If you do not have a burning tool, cut the ribbon with scissors and use a fray check to seal the ends of the ribbon. An open flame would work too (not in addition to the fray check though, that's flammable!) but I could never get my ends of the ribbon looking "crisp" with the flame. Or maybe they were too "crisp" and on their way to "blackened."

I fully line the ribbon to my clips using hot glue.

Now look below. 

 Do you see that Hold-It tape? It's awesome.

Don't mind the "for rugs" part. It should really say "for thin-baby-hair-made-at-home-clippies."

If your clips are always falling out, then get this stuff. 

Cut out a little bit and line your clips.

It's the best no-slip grip ever. 

Seriously. It will make them slip-free.

This bow stayed on my baldie for a full 30 minutes before she ripped it (and those 10 hairs it was gripping) out. 

BEST STUFF EVER!

Now, if your child has hair (and I really don't want to talk to you), you can always use a clear plastic ponytail holder and a partially lined clip. Clip just above the holder. That also works. For kids who have hair. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy making your felties and take advantage of the upcoming sets!

Basketball feltie available here.

If you have any other tips or preferences, leave them in the comments for your fellow crafters.

Quick Tip: Making Your White Stay White

I recently made a Santa Riding a Tractor design.

This guy was fun to make, but I had a little dilemma. Should I do a lot of the detail in applique or embroidery? To save some time, I went with embroidery.

This causes one slight problem if you stitch Santa's white beard on anything but a white shirt. White is terrible at giving complete coverage. Just ask any 13 year old girl wearing her first white shirt since she.........................uh....................................wrong blog.

Anyway, there is an official product out there to help your embroidery design color pop. It's a permanent topper called Hide It Stabilizer.

I did not have a large area to stitch so I decided to use a little tear-away instead. Mostly since it is not a large area but I am also cheap frugal and impatient didn't want to wait for shipping.

Oh, I decided to test this out on some blue fleece too without any WSS since I ran out. Talk about the odds of this turning out well!

Before your fill stitch, lay your topper on your design.

 When you are done, carefully tear-away!

Ta-da! I even did one without to compare.

Here is without.

Now, I'm interested in getting a pack of the real permanent topper to see how well it works for other embroidery designs. What do you think?

Quick Tip: Getting "That WSS" OFF

So, have you tried a layer of wss on your design before stitching our the final satin stitches?

Did you like it?

And how about removing that top layer of wss?

Yes, that can be a bit of a pain. If the item you made is for yourself, you can easily wash away the wss.

But, if you made the item for someone else, you may be thinking of skipping the final soak with this little tip.

 Here's an item I made the other night using my "Give Thanks Cross" design.

With a lot of little spots for the wss to get stuck.

And you probably have several items in your home that would make peeling off the remaining wss go very quickly. 

I ended up using an eraser the other night because my favorite tool went missing (not that work area is ever messy). I used a regular green eraser but thought that maybe I should have grabbed the white one after a few strokes. Either way, the rubber easily grabs/pulls at the wss making your job a breeze.

(I will note that my favorite is tool is actually for office assistants: A Rubber Finger Tip! Google it. They are cheap and work well :)

Now, after seeing that BOX of rubber finger tips, you'd think I would have been able to find ONE!