Thin Mint Brownies

If you're like me, you've recently been inundated by by a parade of sweet little girls selling Girl Scout Cookies. And, if you're anything like me, you've bought cookies from each and every one of them because:

1. Girl Scouts are adorable
2. Cookies are tasty

Unfortunately, the cookies always look better on our doorstep than they do in our pantry, and we're always left with an extra sleeve or two of Thin Mints and Samoas. In response to this, I modified my Heath Bar Brownie recipe and made Thin Mint brownies.

It's a super-easy recipe. Here's what you need:

1. One box of brownie mix.
2. Two sleeves of Thin Mints
3. "Shrek" on DVD

Here's what you do:

1. Prepare the brownies according to package directions
2. Crush one sleeve of Thin Mints
3. Start picking at the crushed Thin Mints while you watch your daughter pretend to ice-skate around the kitchen.
4. Realize that you've eaten all of the crushed Thin Mints.
5. Crush the second sleeve of Thin Mints and sprinkle them on top of the uncooked brownies.
6. Tell your daughter that she can't lick the spatula because it would spoil her dinner.
7. Distract your daughter with "Shrek" on DVD while you lick the spatula.
8. Wander into the living room and start watching "Shrek" in order to avoid cleaning the kitchen.
9. Take the brownies out of the oven and accept glowing praise for a yummy dessert.

All kidding aside, this was really delicious. The chocolate-mint coating melts into the brownies, while the cookie crumbs stay crispy. My daughter thought it was hilarious that the cookie crumbs looked a little like dirt, and suggested that we decorate the next batch with lollipop "flowers" and gummy worms. Unfortunately, that next batch will have to wait, because this was the end of our Thin Mints, and Girl Scout cookies come only once a year.

How To Applique With Your Embroidery Machine - Stitching a Design with Three or More Colors

Applique designs with three or more colors can look intimidating, but they shouldn't be. The process for creating a three-color design is exactly the same as the process for creating a single-color design. Only, there's a little more work involved. So, you might want to have some chocolate on hand.

For this tutorial, I'm using my Captain America design, which is available here, but if you don't have the Cap, you can use any design with three different colors. Here's what to do:

1. Stitch the first outline of the design on your project.

2. Remove the hoop from your machine and adhere blue fabric over the outline using temporary spray adhesive. Place the hoop back in your machine and stitch the second outline over the blue fabric.

3. Remove the hoop from your machine again and trim the blue fabric very close to the outline stitches, leaving less than 1/8" and taking care not to clip any stitches.

4. Place the hoop back in your machine and stitch the outline of the Captain's facial features.

5. Remove the hoop from your machine. At this point. I like to go over my design with a dry iron to dissapate what's left of the spray adhesive. This will make your next step much easier.

6. Using very sharp embroidery or applique scissors, clip the blue fabric out of Captain America's eyeholes.

7. Using more temporary spray adhesive, adhere flesh-colored fabric over your entire outline.

8. Place the hoop back in your machine and stitch the second outline of the facial features. Remove the hoop from your machine and go over your design with a dry iron again.

9. Take out your scissors again and clip very close to the facial stitching, leaving less than 1/8"

10. Place the hoop back in the machine and stitch the outline for the white portion of the design. You'll notice that I've switched to white thread here. Most applique designs will ask you to use a different color of thread for each step. This helps the digitizer, and it tells your machine when to stop stitching at each step, but it really isn't necessary. Up until your final step, you can use any neutral color that you'd like. I prefer to use the same color as the final stitches. That way, I can be sure that no unwanted threads will show through on my finished design.

11. Remove the hoop from your machine and adhere white fabric over the white portions of your design with temporary spray adhesive. By now, this step should feel very familiar! Place the hoop back in the machine and stitch the outlines of the white portions of the design over your white fabric. Remove the hoop from your machine and go over the design with a dry iron one last time.

12. Trim very close to your outline stitches again. At this point, your design should look like this, which is exciting because you can start to see the shapes of your finished applique:

13. Place your hoop in your machine one more time and stitch the remainder of your design.



And you're finished! Take out the chocolate and celebrate a new design! 

How To Applique With Your Embroidery Machine - Stitching a Two-Color Design

Yesterday, I talked about stitching a single-color applique design with an embroidery machine. Today, we'll tackle a design that uses two colors, or two different fabrics. For this tutorial, I'll be using my Iron Man design, which is available here, but you can use any design that utilizes two fabrics. Here's how to do it:

1.       Stitch the initial outline where you want the applique to be placed on your finished project.

2.       Using temporary adhesive spray, adhere red fabric over the initial outline.

3.       Stitch the second outline over the red fabric, and remove the hoop from your machine.

4.       Using applique or embroidery scissors, cut your red fabric very close to the second outline stitching, leaving less than 1/8”

5.       Place the hoop back in your machine and stitch the inner outline. Remove the hoop from the machine again. After this step, I like to go over the design with a dry iron while it's still in the hoop. This helps to dissapate the temporary adhesive spray and makes it easier to trim your fabric. One of those little craft irons that you can get at Michael's is perfect for this.

6.       Very carefully, clip the red fabric close to the inner outline, leaving less than 1/8”

7.       Using temporary adhesive spray, adhere yellow fabric over the inner outline.

8.       Place your hoop back in the machine and stitch the second inner outline. Remove your hoop from the machine again. If you'd like, you can go over the project with a dry iron again.

9.       Clip the yellow fabric close to the inner outline, leaving less than 1/8”

10.   Place your hoop back in the machine and stitch the rest of the design.

That's all there is to it. By now, you should have a perfectly stitched applique on your T-shirt or tote bag. Tomorrow, I'll feature a tutorial for stitching a design with more than two colors.  

How To Applique With Your Embroidery Machine - Stitching a Single-Color Design

I have a confession to make - when I first opened up my embroidery machine, I was afraid to applique. Only when I started digitizing my own embroidery designs did I realize how simple it is to hoop and stitch a beautiful applique design. Now, I'm an absolute applique addict. Nothing in my daughter's wardrobe is without a design.

Over the next few days, I'll walk you through the steps of stitching one, two, and three-color applique designs on your embroidery machine. Here's how to get started with a one-color design.

For this tutorial, I'll be using my vintage Barbie silhouette design. It's available here. But you can use any single-color applique design.

1.       Stitch the silhouette outline on your fabric.

2.       Remove the hoop from your machine and, using temporary spray adhesive, adhere your applique fabric to your project over the outline.

3.       Place the hoop back in your machine and stitch the second outline over your applique fabric.

4.       Remove the hoop from your machine and, with the project still in the hoop, iron your applique fabric with a dry iron. This will help to dissipate the temporary spray adhesive.

5.       Using embroidery or applique scissors cut your applique fabric very close to the stitched outline, leaving less than 1/8.” Take care not to clip any of the stitches.

6.       Place the hoop back in the machine and stitch the final outline.

 It really is that simple and fool-proof to stitch an applique, and it only takes a few minutes. Tomorrow, I'll walk you through a more complex two-color design.