Embroidery

I finished a few embroidery pieces before I really had to dive into Christmas gifts. The first 2 items are Sublime Stitching designs from the Sublime Stitching the book.









This last onesie is embroidered with a free design from Needlecrafter.





We're running out of Christmas days! Happy 11th day of Christmas!

T-shirt bags

These were simple and fun to make. I dove into my giant stash of old t-shirts and whipped these out fairly quick. The idea is from the bookTease.

A few quick sewn gifts for friends

In trying to come up with some sewn gifts for men and older boys, I hit upon the idea of luggage tags. Of course, they only work for the traveling types, but they were so quick and easy, I made one for thee two gals in the family as well. They don't allow for any info, but they'll make finding your bag at the airport pretty simple. Just made up my own pattern.





These ornaments were just the thing for families I was also giving sweet treats to. They looked great tied atop a tin of goodies, and they incorporated buttons and felted sweater scraps from my stash. I deviated from the great pattern provided by Disdressed by not using regular felt, which would have resulted in a cleaner finish, but then what would I do with my sweater scraps?





Happy 10th day of Christmas!

Depression Aprons

Hey, happy first day of 2009!

These were gifts for some wonderful ladies in my life. The pattern is the "Vintage Apron" pattern from a totally awesome book, Bend the Rules Sewing.

I call them depression aprons, because I didn't buy any fabric, it was all reclaimed fabric from thrifted items: A big reversible Ikea duvet cover, a coordinating Ikea pillow sham, and a bit of an Old Navy Men's dress shirt. I *almost* didn't buy buttons, but I found one that was so perfect, and I did buy trim. However, the one with gingham trim required no trips to the store whatsoever.

During the Great Depression, there were many little sayings to remind people of the way things were, One of them, "Make do or do without" has run through my head most of the last year. But then, I can run out and pick up trims and buttons...the way things are, maybe I should just change the name to recession aprons!

This first one has a very old fashioned Embroidery technique on the gingham pocket called Chicken Scratch. It must be done on gingham, and a few very simple stitches result in a lovely lace pattern. I made a "large heart" from the pattern I found here. The embroidery went fast, but this apron definitely took the most time, due to the Chicken Scratch. Hand sewing always increases the time any project takes.





check out more Chicken Scratch photos in this Flickr Pool

The rest are variations of the same, all with the Ikea fabrics, vintage buttons and retro-kitch trim, like ball fringe, cut felt leaves, and ric-rac.