So, I've been procrastinating for a while (partly b/c of my headaches, partly because my craft room is a wreck...) but I finally completed two projects tonight. One, was an elephant onesie for a dear friend. She found the outline of an elephant she liked, and I added the houndstooth (signature Coach Bear Bryant) hat. The hat is hand cut to fit each unique elephant. The elephants are also hand cut, but traced onto some heatbond fusible sewable webbing. I use an applique stitch on my plain sewing machine to sew each applique on. The hardest part is curves: because you have to put the needle down, raise the presser foot, turn the material, and lower the presser foot. Sometimes this happens and i can only go one stitch -- you really have to concentrate. But the result is worth it, and I feel they are unique and "un perfect" in their own way. I love using my embroidery machine to applique -- but this is my favorite way to applique -- almost by hand :). 
Now, this friend of mine also asked me to create something quite unique for her son: a cape. Now, normally a cape would be super easy but this wasn't just any cape -- it was an ACU shirt cape. These are the t-shirts worn by our soldiers with their "acu" (or digitized camo) uniforms. This little boy's wish was special -- because his daddy is deployed right now, and he currently wears a regular ACU shirt as a cape -- but it falls off. The mom asked me to make a cape out of an ACU shirt. "Luckily" my hubbs spent 5 years in the army (and 4 at USMA) and has quite a collection of these shirts. I also put the "S" for superman on the back of the cape -- at the wish of my dear friend. The "S" is traced from the logo online, and then hand cut. the hardest part of this portion of the process was the yellow fabric. I had to cut out the "negative" portion using the yellow fabric, then pin each portion on -- ironing after I finished. Of course all of this (red and yellow) has heat n bond on the back so that it's easier to fuse to the fabric, and sew on when I'm finished. Well, that's all I did tonight -- it took me roughly 3 hours to complete both projects...
I hope they inspire you to do some projects :)
Cyndie....
