Embroiderer Top - McCall's 7600

I have this thing about fabric, no fabric left behind.  What am I talking about?  Well, if I finish a project and I have enough fabric left to make something else, I feel this incredible need to do that.

So after finishing my McCall's 7510 Chambray cold Shoulder Top I had enough fabric to make a sleeveless top.  What do you do when you need inspiration?  Pinterest of course.  I knew I wanted to add some embroidery, it is the trend. Plus, I want to use the embroidery feature more on my machine.  Here is my inspiration

Now pattern time, I had McCall's 7600 in my collection and thought this would work.  It is a knit only pattern but I just went up a size.

When looking for an embroidery design, I searched for crewel embroidery designs and I found several on Etsy.  All were from GFCraft and I love these designs.  They are so on trend and fun.  After looking around I purchased border cross stitch design but used  one color instead of the multi-color

Let's talk about how I lined this all up.  First thing is I did a test stitch out, so I knew the exact size.  I then took that stitch out and placed it on the yoke, the embroidery bottom edge  1-1/4" from the bottom yoke edge.  Pressing a fold in the center front, I placed the edge of the design 5/8" from the CF.  I made sure I had the middle (horizontal and vertical) marked on the fabric.  These were necessary to place on the corresponding marks on the embroidery hoop.  My Pfaff has a baste feature, which is great to show the exact location of the embroidery.

I knew the bottom line of basting needed to be on the lower line (the 1-1/4" mark)  After that I hooped, basted, double and triple checked and stitched out the first one.  That was the easy part, stitching out the second one made me so nervous.  I had no extra fabric!  The lines made all the difference and they were the solution for a perfect stitch out.   One thing about this the design needed lots of trimming, that took some time.

Finally, I wanted a CF slit.  The deigns didn't meet in the middle and the slit was a good design feature to "interupt" the design.  Plus it made the knit pattern, made from a woven easier to get on.

I used facing for the slit and then bias binding for the neckline.

 Now a few photos to see the embroidery and the slit

I couldn't be more pleased with how this top came out.  I love the embroidery, the white on the chambray is just perfect, in my opinion.

Now my camera on the other hand is giving me fits!  I took photos 3 different times.  I don't know if it is the lens or the camera but it is focusing on the strangest things. 

 That is okay, I was able to try on this top with three different types of jeans.  I have options!

What do you think about the embroidery trend?  I can remember having a denim shirt my mom hand embroidered for me when I was a kid.  In fact, my mom embroidered one for several relatives for Christmas.  Wish I still had that shirt.