I did an Embroidery today !

Made up my mind, just today, to embroider something cute to wear home Friday, after my surgery. I think it’ll help my outlook, both before and after. Long after I’ve forgotten I even have an implant, it’ll be a nice memory and a sweet souvenir, even if no one else notices. Located a comfy t-shirt that’d be loose enough to camouflage if wearing a bra proved too painful, but if the design totally went south, would only cost a few bucks to replace. Found the embroidery design I wanted, paid four bucks for it (20% discount, yay) watched the free Bernina program digital-stitch it on my computer, printed out a worksheet for it, selected and wrote down the thread colors, then second-guessed m’self and selected new ones, shuffled sewing machines, chalk marked the shirt for placement, and downloaded the pattern from my computer to Brody … then did my very best to avoid the whole thing for the rest of the day. 

Oh, I skirted around it – I couldn’t completely ignore it, I paid money for the design ! But I kept finding m’self busy with other, very important activities as each self-imposed deadline approached. There was too much clutter on the Arena. The floor held too much grit, food scraps, and dust. Lunchtime ! It had been years since I embroidered on knit fabrics – maybe I should read up on the right way to do that, just in case. Oh, wait, this person is wrong about a minor detail in this online article, I’d best let them know. Anything new on Pinterest or Etsy ? You know, the usual. 

But as evening approached – thanks a lot, Daylight Savings Time ! (growlmuttergrumble) – I knew if I didn’t get it done today, I wouldn’t do it at all, and the design didn’t have a lot of appeal after Friday. Oh, I could come up with other uses for it, or I’d have never shelled out real money for it, but it was getting close to now or never time. Nothing is as inspiring as a rapidly approaching deadline. I took a deep breath, dug through the stabilizers, hooped up the shirt, and figured I had at least three patches to cover this up if I totally pooched it. 

And it went beautifully. Only took about 27 minutes (yes, I time ‘em for later reference) and the one thread break I had wasn’t the holo-shimmer glittery plastic stuff. It was the border beige, which had somehow gotten wrapped around the thread pin when I was staring at the stitching. I had lots of trouble with the holo-shimmer breaking on the Odyssey machine cover design, so this time, I added a pencil to the jar, to help ease it off the spool. Worked much better. 

This is a non-licensed ‘Doc McStuffins’ design, according to EmbroideryPanda.com. All I wanted was a bandage, but the heart was a nice touch. It stitches as a solid bandage, so I can skip the heart part if I want to. Evidently, Doc’s band-aids have a pink or red heart – you can't hardly find a bandage design without a heart on it, thanks to ole Doc - but I did mine in the silvery holo-shimmer thread to reflect my new upcoming ‘high tech’ heart. It’s placed on the shirt to hit about where my incision will be, perhaps a bit lower. Don’t worry, I’ll back it with some soft iron-on interfacing made to cover the backsides of crafty clothes. 

I’d just finished when Beloved Hubby came home – and said we were going out for Chinese tonight ! Whoo-hoo ! It was heavenly. What a great day ! 

Up early - tomorrow’s all my pre-testing at the VA. Wish me luck !