Thread Thursday: Stitching up Irony

Last month Urban Threads put their Ironic Sweater designs on sale.  This was a very clear invitation to buy them for my very own holiday-themed attire.  Those that know me know that I'm not a super fan of Christmas or the nearly forced consumerism that the U.S. participates in.  Never mind the fact that I think telling children a lie about a magical fat man that breaks into your house once a year is a bad idea.  We'll skip past most of that and get to Thread Thursday!

I'll sum up the procedure but you really need to go read Urban Threads' tutorial because that's what I did.  First, pick out your designs and print it out.  I trimmed the printouts so they would easy to work with.  I was super stoked about this part.  Why?  Because it was the first thing I printed on our new laser printer!

Add lines and tape to shirt.  After I did this I remembered that I hadn't added the stabilizer so I had to cut and iron it onto the inside of the shirt front.  The Frixion pen did its disappearing act, but like it sometimes does it still could be seen.  In my experience Frixion pen marks always wash out.  Even just the application of a few drops of water washes out the marks.  Do what makes you comfortable, though.

I started with the center design and worked out from there.  I'm not a fancy person, so I decided this would be just fine stitched onto a blue tee.  Besides, I think this shirt is cool enough to be worn more than once a year.

I loaded it up and let the machine do its thing.  I used Superior Bottom Line pre-wound bobbins in gray for the bottom and Magnifico in a light gray for the top thread.  This kind of thing takes forever.  I totally think the results are worth it, and you never have to change the thread color, but it isn't something you can finish quickly.

Aren't they great marching along?  Brains!

With the first row done I moved on to the second row.  I'm not a very tall person, so I figured two rows would be plenty.  Turns out I would still be stitching if I'd done a third row.

The stabilizer is a iron-on cut-away.  I'm still learning about stabilizers and how to get the best results with my embroidery machine.  I don't think I'll be going into business anytime soon but I do think I'm improving.

You can still see the lines from the Frixion pen but I didn't even wash the shirt.  We had a quiet holiday meal with friends at our house.  I finished the stitching on this the morning of the 25th.  I just put it on over a long sleeve tee and went with it!

It isn't what you would expect out of a holiday sweater.  I like that.

Did you stitch up something fun for yourself for the mid-winter celebration?