Creative Sausage

Yesterday I put on a dress I hadn't worn since last summer and boy was it tight. I think I've been in denial on how much weight I've gained over the winter. This dress was a definite wake up call.  I felt like a stuffed sausage and completely unattractive.  So what did I do?  I kept wearing it all day.  I think I needed to be uncomfortable and unattractive to drive the point home to my brain.  I absolutely did not like how I felt and looked.

In frustration I spent all day working on a design for the boy child because he and Sarah are going to Disneyland in June.  I figured they could use some new beach towels and a bag to go with them.

Here's the process I go through when dealing with a new design.

Once I've picked and edited a design, I start figuring the colors.  For some unknown reason, I just can't pull a color out and go....'Perfect'.  Nope, I have to pull every color I have on hand and go through them one by one.

I print up a sheet that tells me which color or piece of the design is going to sew out and in what order.  I write in each square the name and color of thread I'm going to use.  I put a star next to the colors that will sew out more than once so I make sure they get a permanent position on the machine and I don't have to spend time adding and subtracting them manually.

As you can see by this picture, I recycle paper.  These are just my notes so it doesn't matter if there's printing on the back of the sheet.  I think this one has information on my Kodak printer when I was searching best prices and specs.

Once I've got the colors selected they go on the machine.  If the design takes more than 6 colors, I take the extra spools and line them up in the order they'll be sewing out.  That way, I stay organized and don't tie on the wrong color. This pictures shows I'll do the rust, then cream, then silver, then dark grey.

Of course, I always have my crack guard dogs on alert to make sure no one comes in and steals my designs or supplies.  See why I have two chairs in the sewing room?  It's that or I'd end up sitting on the floor trying to work on the computer.  LOL!

Anyway, I sew out a sample of the design first.  That way I have the option of changing some of the colors if I feel it's necessary.  On this particular design, I didn't like the outside of the sand dollar being dark grey, plus it didn't hug the design and looked awful.  I cut that portion of the design out and outlined the sand dollar again closer to the edges and made it the same beige as the fill.  It look neater and cleaner.

It's hard to tell how vibrant these colors are in this little picture but trust me they are.  I should have made the design a bit smaller so it would be easier to put on the bag but was too lazy to do the additional edit.  That was not the smartest move because it took a lot of time to set up.  The machine didn't like the tight quarters and I had to do a last minute adjustment on the lettering in the middle of the design being embroidered out.

Next time I'll take the extra 5 minutes or so and reduce the size of the design. That would save me about 20 minutes of fussing around during the embroidery process.

The upside is....I had moments of the day when I wasn't thinking what a stuffed sausage I'd become.  LOL!