Blog

Let me start this by saying I cannot believe how well this turned out. I can also do not believe how much my coworker Jake, liked this gift.  I’m already getting ahead of myself…

Jake’s birthday was last week and I wanted to do something nice for him. But, the afternoon prior to his birthday I had no idea what this would be. Embroidering gifts for male coworkers is a bit tricky, because you don’t want to do anything too personal. And, let’s face it, guys don’t usually get that excited about monograms.

Last year, though, I did hit a home run embroidering St. Louis Cardinal dish towels for my other coworker, Bryan. But Jake doesn’t have the same passion for the Cardinals that Bryan does. Jake likes to fish, camp, canoe and basically spend a lot of time outdoors.

Inspiration struck as I was slogging my way through Walmart with three kids in tow when we discovered outdoor camping chairs on sale for $12. They came in great bright colors and looked like they were good enough quality that they wouldn’t fall apart in their first year of use. But how in the hell was I going to get them on my embroidery machine.

I decided to give it a go – stitching Jake’s name on the back of the chair. This made me extremely nervous since I only have a single needle machine, however I was able to rest the chair on my sewing table while sticking the back headrest onto sticky back stabilizer and stitching it out just like that. I sort of tried to hold it in place as the stitching was going on and keep the chair from folding back up during the stitching.

And… I can’t believe this actually worked. The stitching looks great; it was straight and I had no problems whatsoever. But the best part was that Jake absolutely loved the chair. He was texting pictures to his wife and brother shortly after I gave it to him. Who knew a $12 gift from Walmart could make someone so happy?