Appliqued letters is something I have been wanting to try for a long time, and with some tutoring from my husband, I have done it. I started by asking my husband for help since he is the one with the digitizing skills. With his help I created the letters of the ’Snoopy’ design. I learned a great deal about digitizing and using my digitizing program. I am excited to try again soon so I will remember the skills that I have learned. The most important thing about digitizing that I learned was that a little prep work goes a long ways, know the sizes you need before you start. The program I have is very precise and it gives very little room for error. Each step must be done in order and correctly. So with that in mind, I decided to make my design the size of my largest hoop, making each letter 1.75 inches tall and how ever wide that made them. I also decided that a design the size of my large hoop would fit well on a size 1 pant leg, so I made the pants size 1. Next time, I will make the word in two parts so that the letters can be bigger and I can use a larger size pattern. This will give me the chance to learn about aligning designs and something new to look forward to.
I have stitched a couple of appliques before, but as always, I learned a 
lot for this design. The white fabric that I chose for the letters easily frays. This caused me some distress in the appliqueing process. When I was cutting out of the letters, the white fabric would fray out from under the stitches into the design area. After stitching the final edge of the letters, there were a couple of spots on the letters that had frayed too much and I had to use a little fray check on the spots. I have had great luck with fray check holding up in the wash, but this will be the first time I have used it on kids clothes and on the exterior of the clothes. We will see how it does. So on the next applique I will pick better fabric for the design. The next thing I learned is that as with most things in life, you can not rush the process. It takes time to do all the cutting, and the last thing I learned is to have a good sharp pair of scissors.
For the shirt, I decided to also try 
something I had not done before and put a hood on it. This worked out really well. I am anxious to see someone wearing the shirt to see how the hood lays and wears. I put the cording in like the pattern called for, but I think next time I will leave it out. I don’t now how the cording will wash and I don’t think the hood will ever be tightened around the face of a small child. The hood is more for the look, but we’ll see what happens on the next one.
I am excited about this little outfit and the end results. In my opinion, it is VERY CUTE! Of course, the Snoopy biases my opinion, but I am excited to get sewing other characters as well. I want to try one for Mickey, Pooh, Tigger, Buzz, Woody, as well as other designs like lions, monkeys, trucks and basketballs. Not to mention the colors I want to use with each. Yes the creative wheels are turning inside my head now! LET’S GET SEWING!
blade. I decided that since it was flannel, I would use the skip-stitch blade #2 that cuts the slits closer together and is designed for flannels. Because of the seam allowance folded inside the blanket, I made the skip-stitch cut at 1 inch from the edge. Then I started to crochet, but the more I stitched the less I liked the results. At first, I thought the skip-stitch blade #2 should not say designed for flannels, but designed for lighter weight yarns or crochet cotton. In my opinion at the time, the slits from blade #2 were too close together for regular weight yarn. Second, 1 inch is too long of a drop for the stitch. It is very difficult to keep the fabric smooth underneath the long stitches. Third, with the weight and stiffness of the seam allowance I believe that a more rounded corner would be better then trying to stitch the square ones I have sewn. Because I was not happy with the results of my crocheting, I tried to doing a single crochet at the top of the edge instead of just a chain stitch. I would have called the little knot at the edge of the blanket the finish edge, but I still did not like the results. So instead of undoing and trying it again, I decided to try some variations in a row to compare them with the others.
The first thing I tried was abandoning the regular weight yarn for a lighter weight yarn. I then crocheted several stitches with the long drop. Next I crocheted some by folding the edge over to make a smaller drop. On these stitches, I chained at the top, so on the next couple of stitches, I single crocheted at the top 
edge keep the fold. I saw very quickly that I liked the folded edge or shorter drop. The difference between the chain and the single crochet at the top became a matter of what design I wanted, not what looked good. With these results, I went back to the regular weight yarn and tried it again with folding the edge as well as the chain and single crochet on the top. I quickly found out that the fold or the shorter drop is the answer I was looking for. Perhaps the skip-stitch blade #2 does not have to be relabeled for light weight yarn, but just don’t cut so far from the edge. Now the options are wide open. Do I sew the edge of the blanket again and cut with the skip-stitch blade again closer to the edge, or should I just do the fold? Do I use the lighter weight yarn or the regular weight? Do I do a chain at the top as a base stitch for the next row, or do a single crochet and see how that looks as the base row, or as the only row? Now, I just have to decided what I want to do.
Romper #1 is made from my boughten pattern with the bindings around the legs. It turned out very cute, but it is a good thing that I like to sew or this romper, as well as the other two, would not exist. As I cut and ironed tiny pieces of interfacing for the shoulders and the crotch, I started to wonder about the time involved in the making of these things. After sewing, finishing and folding all the bindings, I started to add the time up, and by the time the snaps where done, I was convinced that the love of sewing is the only reason to make more of these.
Romper #2 is made from the pattern I 
made from the rompers I purchased. I am happy with the end results for my first try, but I have made several adjustment to my pattern especially at the hem. Next time I need to cut the half circle for the back longer so there is something to turn up for a hem. On this try, I serged along the bottom to finish the edge, but I am not happy with the results. There were too many loose threads. I also learned that sewing on the back half circle is the last step in the construction. All the hemming is done first and then it is sewn on. I may have to make another one of this style of romper just to know that I have the pattern and construction down, even though all my ranting from the front romper #1 still stands. 
Romper #3 is the combination of a tab
front shirt pattern and the romper pattern. I intended for this romper to be worn as a shirt, with pants or shorts, so I did not add binding to the legs, just serged and hemmed. I have made many shirts for my husband with the tab front, but this pattern was different than his. The tab front was made from a single slit instead of cut out piece. I like the pattern with the piece cut out better, so if or when I make this tab shirt style again, I think I will change the pattern and make it like I make my husband’s shirts. It turned out cute anyway, and I really like the Pooh on the blue fabric. 
Wal-mart, and a very nice and knowledgeable employee named Ken helped me to find the mysterious stabilizer I previously asked if anyone knew what it was. I believe he called it “web knit”. It is sold by the yard and found with the interfacing and other bulk stabilizer at our closest Joann’s Fabric Store. I bought two yards and can’t wait to try it out. Thanks again, Ken.