Lil Man Tie Banner

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It is true, the little men don't ever get enough recognition.  I know in my family of 3 girls and one boy, the girls are always over shadowing my Little Man.  We are constantly trying to find something fun for boys and I think we have done a fabulous job with our newest in the hoop design.  Our Lil Man Tie Banner is here and just in time for Father's Day.  It really is so cute.  With Jacki's little Man being Christened on Father's day it is the perfect embellishment for his after party.  I was so excited when she digitized the file and couldn't wait to stitch it out and make it super cute for his big day.

This design stitches out quickly because it has a raw edge.  It is just an applique so there aren't any special instructions to have to follow.  We used Peltex as our first layer in the applique.  If you have never heard of or used Peltex, it's awesome. Peltex is an ultra firm, smooth and resilient stabilizer.  It's really easy to cut with scissors or a rotary cutter and has no grain, so you can cut it in any direction.  If you type "peltex" into your search engine it will come up with tons of places you can purchase it. I usually just get mine at Joanne's though.  :)

If you have never done a raw edge applique on your embroidery machine, no worries, click here for a quick tutorial on how to do it.

If you have never done an applique of any kind then click here for a tutorial on regular machine applique and a free download of an applique you can practice on.

We thought it would be cute to add some little buttons to the collars of our banner pieces.  I bought these little buttons at Walmart for .67 cents.

Then I used my favorite fabric glue, Fabritac, made by Beacons (also available at Walmart)  It is sometimes labeled fabri-fix but, always made by Beacons.

Just place a dot of it on each point then press your buttons on.

So Cute!

I'm all about big bows for my fancy schmancy girls but, I thought bows were a bit much for this little man so, I just folded a strip of ribbon in half and tied a loose knot in one end then slipped it through the hole punch in the design.  I pushed the other two ends through the next banner piece's hole punch and tied the second knot.  Once the knots were in place, I just tucked the two tail pieces back through the hole punch so they were not visible from the front of the banner.

It was absolutely adorable but, then I thought it would be even more adorable with a little mustache as a spacer.  So....

I loaded our Mustache Applique design into the machine and stitched it out onto a piece of Peltex.

I added a step in (and I apologize for not taking more detailed pictures).

After the placement stitch I pinned a piece of fabric to the back of my hoop.  I folded the edges in so they had a more finished look.  I placed the pins on the front of my hoop not the back so the back was still nice and flush and would stitch easily.  I then placed a piece of press and seal over the back just to make sure the fabric wouldn't get caught on anything.  Next I placed my fabric on the front of the hoop as usual and ran my stay stitches.  I then trimmed my fabric on the front and back before running the satin stitch outline. 

This is what the back looked like when I finished.  So simple to run the ribbon through for the banner.

And the front, just as cute as ever.

We can't help but love it.  We hope you and your man (big or little) do too!

~DeLynne