Happy Thanksgiving!

Two of our nephews are experiencing their first Thanksgiving days this year and in honor of the occasion, I made up some bibs and sleeve savers (a Sew Baby Pattern) for Ryan and Joseph:

This was a free design I downloaded in 2006; I made up three of these last year for the 2006 batch of kids (but I wasn't blogging back then, so didn't take any photos). All of the blank bibs were purchased at Babies R Us.

These are applique designs I bought in 2006 which I reduced in size to 66% the original size using 4D Embroidery software and added lettering. Football and helmet fabrics are from some sort of faux suede remnants in my collection. They held up quite well to washing.

I started making this batch of sleeve saver bibs in September, just before my machine started wigging out -- I had it repaired in October, but didn't have an opportunity to add the embroidery until the past couple of weeks. All the fabrics for this batch were remnants -- the sweatshirt fleece, and all the knit ribbings. The turkey embroidery design was purchased in 2006. There are a few more completed sleeve savers waiting for embroidery . . . but they are in line to be Christmas gifts.

I took all these photos before the final washing so you can still see some of the solvy topping I used for the embroidery and some of the chalk and hoop marks. These all went away after washing. I experimented with some new stabilizers in this round of bibs. I ironed on fusible washaway stabilizer on the backs of each piece -- it is supposed to leave some fibers in place for stabilizing the embroidery but the rest is supposed to wash away. I hooped a sticky stabilizer -- I believe it is called aqua-magic -- and positioned the bib on the sticky side. This is also supposed to wash away in the laundry, but either I didn't allow it to soak long enough or I didn't use the proper water temperature, because I found clumps of gummy debris on my pieces. So I had to run them through a second rinse and spin cycle before I dared put them in the dryer.

I'm wrapping up my Thanksgiving and birthday projects and getting started on Christmas. Last time I checked, there were 42 days left . . . what? now there are only 37? Uh oh . . . I'm either going to have to start cranking out 4 gifts a week or re-think my list and streamline the handmade portions.

Rich asked me today when I was gonna make something for *me* . . . I need to alter the waistbands on a few pairs of jeans, but other than that, sewing for myself is going to have to wait until January. I have quite a pile of patterns and fabrics ready to go, just as soon as I have time.

See my Baby Stuff Flickr set for more bibs.