Mylar, its not just for balloons anymore!

Who knew mylar was so versatile?  I learned about it at an embroidery conference.  It can be used to give an embroidery project an extra special sparkly "pop" and people will wonder how you did it!  

This project was for a wedding shower.  I really wanted to go to the shower but already had plans to go out of town.  I was trying to think of a special gift to send when I got an email from the bride's mother, one of my very close friends from my college days.  She suggested that I make a garter & pillow for the bride using the design from the wedding invitation. I thought this was a great idea since the invitation was such a cute design.

The heart was easy to digitize and I used one of the built-in fonts to add the text, but it just looked so plain, it needed something.  I remembered taking a class at an embroidery conference where we used mylar.  I had several sheets of it so I decided to utilize it in the project.  I added a circle of stitching using a very open pattern so the mylar would show through.  Once I finished the design, I transferred it to the machine and hooped a piece of white satin.  Over the satin, I placed the sheet of mylar and started stitching.

Notice how the clear mylar starts picking up the color of the thread (purple)?  I finished stitching the design before tearing the rest of the mylar off.

Once I finished the stitching, I tore off the rest of the mylar and saved it for my next project.  Then I finished making the pillow, adding a 1 1/2 inch ruffle to the edge.

I liked it, but it looked kind of lonely so, at the suggestion of the bride's mother (who has great ideas), I made a matching garter.  I tried using mylar but the design was just too small and it didn't look right.

Now my gift is ready!  Hope the bride likes it!

My friend just sent a picture of the bride opening her gift!  I think she likes it!!!