Today I work on some of those cute aprons embroidered with children’s faces and names - such an appropriate Mother’s Day gift for grandmom.

After that, I turn my attention to a group of wedding gown labels for the upcoming June weddings.  When I started those labels, I had no idea how huge they would be.  Brides Magazine even saw fit to suggest them as the something blue” in one their articles.

This is for a Washington based Obama campaign worker who had a busy night when it became apparent that his son would be born the night of the Presidential election.  This embroidery will be a framed picture for the baby’s nursery.

These needed to be the same because both girls are going to want this apron.  As I embroidered them, I was transported back to 1980 when I made my first real tutu for daughter Charlotte’s first ballet recital.  It too was purple and turquoise and was made under the direction of a ballet mistress who knew how to make American Ballet Theater tutus.  An army of moms made 18 tutus for that recital - all of them the real thing.

We are excited to announce that our wedding labels and wedding ribbon labels will be showcased in the November/December issue of Brides Magazine. These include labels for the wedding dress, groom’s tie and even the flower girl dress.   

By popular demand!!!

This darling chef’s hat to coordinate with our personalized children’s aprons…

What self-respecting aspiring chef would even approach the kitchen without the full attire of a proper chef?

Therefore, we offer you this adorable chef hat to finish the culinary look.

Translation: an adorable chef.

To see other images of the hat, and all our aprons please visit our children’s apron page.

We created this sweet pillow in the early years of Initial Impressions.  It was commissioned as a pillow to commemorate a little girl’s ballet recital.  It is an example of the kind of project that I love to do.  It calls for close consultation with the customer and a little extra creativity.  It also takes a little more time. The oohs and aahs make it all worthwhile.

Taking custom to a higher level, we sometimes embroider the mascot image you provide so that the resulting product is not only personalized with the child’s name, but also is enhanced by a school or sport mascot - thus making it different from standard stock designs and ultra personalized.

The process to do this is relatively simple. It just involves the digitizing of the image. This is the creation of stitch commands from the artwork. There is a one time cost for the labor to do this and afterwards, the digitized image can be embroidered as many times as desired. This digitizing cost depends on the complexity of the design and I can provide you with a quote before proceeding any further with the project.

Shown here is one custom sports blanket featuring the actual sports mascot of young Ethan.

These girls love to play princess and share a very close friendship.  One girl’s mom thought it would be fun for them to have these aprons to celebrate their princess status while they visit the everyday world and do everyday chores.  A girl couldn’t help feeling a bit special wearing an apron like this.

A repeat collaborator asked me to embroider another of her wedding gift Christmas tree skirts.

This one was a particularly nice wedding gift because the bride was very attached to her maiden name, but was taking his. Both their names are so distinctive and polysyllabic that hyphenating was not an option.

The bride was thrilled to have both names on the skirt for Christmas and sent this photo of their very first Christmas tree.

Isn’t young love beautiful?

Holiday traditions - the special days we look forward to each year.

There are creative ways to support them and it is never too late to start a new one.

The Robinson family has a yearly Bake-a-thon this time of year. Nine members of this family will have special personalized flour sack towels for this year’s festivities.

If you have a special holiday tradition, we would love to hear the details - even if it has nothing to do with embroidery!