Free Harry Potter Design

free applique’ design 9 3/4, the train platform where students board the Hogwarts Express.  Request the designs by leaving a comment at the end of this post.

LEAVE YOUR REQUEST FOR THIS DESIGN AND THE SLEEVE TEXT IN A COMMENT AT THE END OF THIS POST.

Our daughter and her family recently spent the day at Universal Studio’s Harry Potter World in Orlando.  What a grand time they had!

“I don’t want to share with my sister.” “Ok, Daddy can drink it.” “I want to share with my sister.”

It’s no surprise that Alastair would be so smitten with Harry Potter.  Both of his parents are rabid readers and great fans of the books and movies.   Before Alastair, their first child, was born they asked me to sew a Harry Potter themed nursery for him.

The Harry Potter  books have had such a great impact on 2nd grader Alastair, 8.  Before he began the Harry series, he was a good reader but he did not enjoy it.  Every night as he sat down to read for the required 20 minutes, he dreaded it.  Once he began reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, he couldn’t wait for reading time, finishing hoework and chores quickly to have extra time.  He read on the school bus, at the orthodontist office, and at every possible opportunity.

He even reads to his beloved NanNan when he visits her.  Of course, his wand is at hand.

Alastair and his beloved NanNan

His reading comprehension, speed,  vocabulary,  and spelling skills have sky rocketed.  He is just finishing book 6 and can’t wait to move on to book 7.

At Universal, Alastair bought his very own Hogwarts robe.  Just where he plans to wear it outside Harry Potter World I can’t guess.  But he loves it.

He spent all of his allowance, Christmas and birthday money on his own robe.

When he saw the prices of other items, he announced that his Nana could make them for him–for free!!!  And I did.

The sleeve text will be included with the free 9 3/4 design.

Of course, 4 yo Vivian Rose follows big brother’s lead with his every interest.  So they both have requested HP shirts.

Vivian delighted with the wonders of HP World

Vivi, you might have read, is more than a little fixated on cats.

Vivian Rose, 4, with the book she chose at the book fair

Because she doesn’t really know the story of Harry Potter, I knew she would just enjoy another cat shirt.

Crookshanks eyeing Scabbers the rat, hiding in the pocket

This is fun to do.  But when the request for shirts came in, I had on hand only one blank tee shirt in each child’s size.  My first thought was to simply remove the pocket, but I rethought that.

First, I found just the right cat on the old  Brother card  #16, Dogs and Cats.  Trust me, these old embroidery cards and collections are treasures!

Then I removed the tiny pocket and searched my design library for a mouse or rat (no luck with rats– just as well).  The mouse was extracted from another oldie but goodie–Bernina’s Current Critters Continued collection..  In order to make the mouse fit inside the pocket, I had to reduce the size, edit out the tail and rotate it considerably, but it worked.  I knew it would be important to Vivi to be able to look in the pocket and see the entire mouse, not just his head.

Crookshanks is always after Scabbers

You can see that this was done in a rush.  Because I reduced the size of the mouse, I used 50 wt. thread instead of standard 40 wt.  That was a mistake as the coverage is inadequate.  This could have been prevented with dry cover up, but I wanted to get these in the mail ASAP.

And then oonce again, I asked myself, how good is good enough?  I’m pretty sure this is good enough for its purpose.

After these were dropped in the mail, I purchased a stack of blanks for each child.  So there are more to come.   My true love is smocking and heirloom, but I really enjoy embroidering blanks to please my precious two younger grands.

What are you sewing?  What is your favorite kind of sewing?