Gift-giving season is quickly approaching! One lovely way to show your affection is to create personalized gifts just for the special people in your life. Personalizing purchased items with names and monograms is one quick and fun way to customize your gifts.
For children and pre-teens consider putting their first name or nickname on items like bags, towels and pillowcases. It is best to use polyester embroidery on items that need to be laundered frequently (kids are so good at creating laundry). Polyester thread remains colorfast and won't bleed even if it goes through a load with bleach. Perfect for kids, bathroom and kitchen items.
For teens and adults, you may prefer to add a monogram to customize their gift. When planning the layout of a monogram, there are some traditional etiquette guidelines to follow:
• For a single person: all letters the same size: first, middle, last.
• For a single person: one letter larger than the others: last name is normally the largest letter
• For a couple: traditionally the wife is on the left, largest letter in the middle is for the last name, husband is on the right
Of course, you can arrange the letters of a person or a couple's initials in many fun and different ways - the main consistent rule of thumb is if one letter is larger than the others that should represent the last name.
Another fun thing to do is use just the one letter of the last name - this can be beautiful on towels and pillows and make wonderful wedding, housewarming and hostess gifts! Make the letter large and fill your hoop. It's a show stopper!
Enjoy customizing your next gift!
Happy Sewing,
~Reva
