DIY Embroidery Target Stickers, Dexter the Dragon, and a Machine Embroidered Apron

by Power Tools With Thread · June 22, 2017

Those who know me know that I make no bones about being thrifty in my pursuit of my hobbies. While I’ll spend money where quality is required, I’ll also DIY where I can to save a buck… or two…or twenty…or ten thousand as in the case of my longarm.

Let’s take Machine Embroidery Target Stickers. Nice, but not necessary. Most professionals just chalk a 90 degree crisscross and call it good. But if you’re using a fabric that doesn’t take chalk well like a towel, or you don’t want to have to remove chalk lines like on a satin, or you can’t find said chalk, then a sticker works great. It stays put and provides a great pinpoint to see where you want to start. There are pre-printed stickers out there you can buy where you get 250 stickers for (sales pitchman voice here…) “An amazing low price of just $19.99!” ($24.99 on Amazon Prime) Or…you can buy 525 Avery removable dot stickers # 6736 and draw your own 90 degree angle on them, for just … wait for it… $10.58. More than twice the number of stickers for half the price. And here’s a cool little tidbit – it doesn’t matter where the crisscross is on the sticker just so long as the lines are at a 90 degree angle. Easy peasy. I just penciled in a page of them here.

Dexter the Dragon’s baby sister Darla. Y’all remember my last post about the failure on the blue dragon from Shiny Happy World? I gave it another shot with fleece instead of Minky and success! Here she is! I bought some blue fleece for her big brother and will finish him this weekend. Don’t you love her rosy tummy?

I did some extra stitching on those wings at the spine because if my granddaughter is anything like me (and she looks EXACTLY like me) then those wings will be swung like a boomerang prior to launch at her brother. This pretty girl is double stitched everywhere!

Apron Embroidery. A co-worker, Diane, is really into competition BBQ cooking just like hubs and I are. She is hosting her daughter’s high school graduation BBQ this coming weekend and they are smoking 23 beef briskets to serve nearly 400 folks. One aspect of BBQ cooking is Showmanship. Her sister bought all of them matching aprons and she asked me if I’d embroidery hers with her nickname DeeDee. She told me how she wanted it and I let her proof 4 different fonts via text prior to stitching. I just love it and so did she.