Flowers for the Chandler Children's Choir

Today's project: Corsage fabric flowers!

As many of you know, I sew the choir uniforms for the Chandler Children's Choir. You can see photos of the Junior choir's white dresses and vests here and here. Each dress comes with two sashes and two headbands: one in red and one in purple. I also do alterations and hems on the black dresses that the Advanced choir girls wear.

For the upcoming Christmas concerts, the choir director and all of her assistants wanted some matching pretty flowers to wear, so we came up with these beauties for them using the same red fabric that the sashes are made of.



Though the red shiny fabric is spandex, the back of the flowers is actually felt. I wanted to have the largest flower be a bit more sturdy so I used Wonder Under to fuse the shiny red spandex to a piece of red felt. The rest of the layers are the spandex fabric only.

For the flower pattern, I just Googled "fabric flower" and came across this image that I used as my template for the flowers. I kept increasing the size until I had the size of my largest flower- about 5 inches across. I printed that out as a pattern and then decreased it a bit, printed that one out, and kept doing that until I had four sizes. It took awhile to cut them all out, and then I just layered them, making sure each successive layer was offset from the previous layer. When I got done, I pinned them all together and took them to my sewing machine where I used a zig zag stitch to sew them all together in the center.

When I got done with all of that, they still looked a little too plain, so I had an idea. What doesn't look better with a little bit of bling on it? I took seven Swarovski crystals and put them in a tiny flower arrangement in the middle, and it completed the look.


After I was all done with those, I sewed a pin to the back and they were complete!


I think these are going to look so pretty during their Christmas concert!





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Stitch it Together Try It Badge

Last Friday was our Brownie Girl Scout meeting where they earned the Stitch it Together Try It Badge.While I wanted to introduce my 3rd grade Brownies to sewing, I had some limitations:

1. There were 11 girls
2. We only had 1 1/2 hours for the entire meeting
3. These girls were either 8 or 9 years old and in 3rd grade.
4. Did I mention there were 11 of them?!

I really wanted them to take home something that they could actually use, so I decided to have them do these little bags out of felt:



I simply cut a bunch of felt into 5" x 9" pieces. Then I cut a button hole about 1/2 down from one of the 5" edges. On the other 5" edge, I threaded a needle and did a couple of stitches to attach the thread to the fabric where the button would be sewn on, so they could skip the needle threading and knot tying and go straight to sewing.

After they all did their buttons, we divided into two groups. One worked on lacing our troop's recipe book together (a project from a previous meeting) and the other group worked on folding up the felt and sewing up the sides. Then they switched.

As you can imagine, even with lots of parent help, it took a lot longer than I thought it would and only one girl finished the project. The girls all seemed to really love doing it though and were sent home with this cute sewing kit from the Dollar Store so they could finish.

I've already had one girl request more felt so she can make more, and both of my daughters have made several more little bags. I love this project because it is simple and beginner sewers can see a fast and cute result.

Here is the bag my 3rd grade daughter made and is very proud of:

Teacher gifts

Do you still have teachers to give end of year gifts to? Here's a fun idea that our girls did for their teachers.

The Candy Bar Card.

Here's Ashley's:


and here's Sadie's:


After we finished, we rolled them up like this to make it easy to carry and for fun presentation. The ribbon was from the dollar rack at Michaels.



Patrick had fabulous teachers, but he did have four of them, so we sent each of them a bottle of fresh strawberry jam with a nice little handwritten thank you note from him.

It was a great school year for all the kids and I am so very thankful for their teachers!

Minnie Towel- Done!

Here's a quick picture of the finished towel:

You can read more about how I put it together here

She LOVES her new towel. We found a Minnie towel at the local Disney store and I put her name on that as well using the same font. I just love this font that I purchased from KaboDesigns.

Finished today: Two fun aprons

A few days ago, one of my friends frantically called to see if I could make two aprons for her friends' joint birthday party. Here were my instructions: Make them bright, and both friends love wine. That covers a lot of ground! Thankfully, I was able to run a few embroidery ideas by a mutual friend and came up with these super cute aprons:

I got a phone call right after they opened them and they LOVED them! Which makes me really happy! I love it when I get it right!

I found the embroidery design at Sew Forum here. (You may need to have a password to see it and download it.) The font is Harrington which you can download here. The apron is McCalls 5720.

Upcoming Projects

I've got two projects lined up for next week.

1. I'm making a custom tankini swimsuit for one of my daughter's friends. I'm using the out of print Jalie 2006 as my inspiration.

2. One of my friends is having me embroider four beach bags with first names, and designs that match those people's personalities.

When I realized I needed to search through all of my embroidery designs for four specific designs, I realized it was time for me to face reality: I absolutely had to the dreaded embroidery design organization. This may not sound like a big deal, but when I purchased my first embroidery machine on ebay years ago, enclosed was a CD with literally hundreds of designs on it. Add to that the many designs I've ordered from internet providers over the year. These were all sorted haphazardly and it was always a lucky day if I could find exactly what I was looking for.

It took me three days to get them all sorted, but I now feel like I can go forward with new projects with a clearer mind. This always really bugged me, but now... it is DONE!

See all those Embroidery Designers over on the side bar? I didn't realize how many of them there were, but I'm putting them on a link list as kind of a 'bookmark' for me and to help any of you that are looking for new designs. There are some seriously cute applique designs out there!

A Birthday Gift

Since I know my 7 year old doesn't read this blog, I can share with you what I just made for her birthday in May. During our recent trip to Disneyland, she fell in love with Minnie. Because she is need of a new bath towel, I figured this would be the perfect time to use some really fun Minnie red/white dot material.

I used a tutorial I found here to decorate the towel.

Here is the towel hanging:

Full view:


Close up of hanger.

I'm thinking she needs her name above one of the fabric strips in a bright red. Any font suggestions?


*UPATE* I've found the font to use here. I've even digitized her name... I just didn't have time to get it on the towel before the link party today.

Yes, today is a linky party with House of Hepworths. Go check her out! She inspired me to burn my fingers with my glue gun yesterday when I made my very first decor ball.

Recent embroidery projects from Embroitique

Several months ago, I stumbled along an Etsy treasure I didn't know existed: embroidery designs from private designers that I could purchase as individual designs. I purchased designs from a few designers and have since purchased more from one of my favorite designer's websites:


Here are some of the items I have embellished with the designs I purchased there:

1. A bag for my daughter's birthday. I picked up this shoulder bag on a clearance rack for $5. Adding this Ballerina design made it look like a high end bag, and best of all, it looks like the design was always there!


2. I made some burp cloths for a friend who had a baby and used the Tinker Toy Alphabet to put the baby's name on it.



3. I used the Bethany Monogram Design to add a monogram and a name to some suitcases. These turned out so pretty!



4. I used the Necktie applique to make a super cute onesie as a baby gift. I thought I took a photo of it, but I can't find it, so you'll have to imagine this design with a navy plaid tie.


If you do machine embroidery, you'll have to check them out. There are so many cute designs that they offer!

Beginning

I have a ton of finished projects and I am in the process of uploading them so I can share with you some of the many items I have made over the years. Perhaps they will inspire you to make something similar, or give you an idea for a unique gift for someone you know.

If you see something you like, feel free to email me and I can tell you if I can replicate it for you, or better yet, make something even more unique just for you!