31 Days... Day 13

This is another one of those projects that I did not finish because it ...  well it was far less than perfect.

A few years ago my Honey gave me a fancy schmancy sewing machine.  It sews beautifully and it converts to an embroidery machine.  And it kicks my butt!!!  All the hooping and stabilizing and centering, etc., etc. challenge me.  It is not the real high end machine which I have heard are actually alot easier to use, but it should be fine for me.  Key word - should.  I have more trouble with the embroidery portion and usually just give up. I get soooo frustrated that I cannot do what so many others make look so simple. 

Anyway back to the unfinished project.  Christmas 2008 (yep, you read that correctly) Wal-Mart had the cutest Christmas fabrics.  Really cute fabric in 3 different prints.  So I bought all that our local store had left by the time I found it.  I think I ended up with almost 30 yards.  I used the majority of it to make pillow cases for just about every child I know - friends' kids and grandkids, cousins, great nieces.  I even made them for all of one of my friend's cousins.  Then I embroidered each child's name on their pillow case and printed the magic pillow case poem to match each pillow case

December is a magical time
With all sorts of colors, ribbons, and rhymes.

Sugarplum fairies will dance in your head,
If you put this special pillowcase on your bed.

 

The reason is special
As you will see

 

It's that it has been dusted
With Christmas Fantasy.

 

Visions of candy canes, Santa and treasures
Will fill each dream with sweetness and pleasures.

 

When the time comes for it to be washed,
Do it quickly so no magic is lost!

They turned out simply precious.  I rolled them up and attached the poem with a ginormous bow.  It was all going splendidly.  My machine and I were getting along so well.  Not a hitch -perfect.  Until.....the.last.one.  Which of course was for my grandson.  The one I wanted to make more than any of the others.  My machine actually was laughing at me I do believe.

On all the other pillow cases I had put only the first name.  But I wanted grandson's first AND middle name on his.  I can only assume I did not hoop it properly to get his middle name on there.  And the machine ate it.  It curled the material into a little wad and then tried to put his middle name on top of that.  And remember I said I had already bought all the material and this was my last pillow case.  So I could not simply make a new one.

Since it had stitched his first name fairly well I saved it.  I knew I could never re-hoop it to match where it had been, what to do.

So today  I finally decided to rip out the middle name.  An hour later and he now has a pillow case with his first name only

It is in the wash now to get rid of all those wrinkles.  And really he is 4, he won't care that his middle name is not on there.

So until tomorrow

Happy DIY'ing

Susan