Valentine's Outfit for My Sweety

Remember the Valentine's Owl Applique I showed you yesterday? Well I ended up using it in the outfit I made my baby for Valentine's Day.



I purchased a shirt from Target and appliqued my design onto it. The fabric was some that I already had at home. This outfit cost me about $3.50













This was a one-seam skirt. That's not something I usually do. But the way it came together was good.
Also I normally "hem" my skirts by putting a contrasting band at the bottom, but this time I made binding from a contrasting fabric and enclosed the skirt bottom with it. I like this method a lot because of the weight that it adds to the hem of the skirt. I feel like such a simpleton that I haven't done this before!

I chose this fabric because it can go year-round and not just for the occassion it was made for. I may have to make myself one!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentine Owl Embroidery

Like I said in the post before, I'm not terribly fond of holidays, specifically because of the commercialization of them. However, I do not mind making outfits and little crafts for my daughter for a particular holiday. Toying around with some embroidery digitizing for an applique idea, I created an owl holding a heart applique.








I think this will fit nicely on a preschooler's top. I'm going to make a matching skirt as soon as I find some adorable fabric to use as an applique.
Thanks for looking!

{Tutorial}: Heart-shaped Pony Holder

I'm not one to get all into holidays, especially not Valentine's Day. But I figured I would have a little fun with it for my daughter this year.

I made this tutorial mostly for embroidery machines, but you can still do this if you don't have an embroidery machine. You will just have to stitch out the heart on your sewing machine.
Let's commence!

You will need:
-a couple of felt scraps about 2-3 inches square
-piece of elastic 2-3 inches long
-coordinating eyelet
-eyelet punch/eyelet attaching tool

I am using a Brother SE-400, so you may have to hunt around a bit to locate similar designs on your machine.


Hoop a piece of tear-away stabilizer into your hoop.


Select the "frames" options on your screen.


Locate the heart frame and select it.


Select a decorative stitch. I chose a dotted scallop stitch.


Scale your heart down to the smallest size and position it in the corner of your hoop. Place a piece of felt on top and underneath the stabilizer, making sure they match up. Trace your design to make sure it will fit on your felt.




Stitch out your design. This shouldn't take long.


Punch the heart out of the stabilizer. Trim close to the stitches and punch a hole in the center with the eyelet punch.




Overlap the ends of your elastic slightly and punch a hole right through both ends.


Place the eyelet through the hole in the felt heart and flip over.


Place the pierced ends of the elastic over the rear end of the eyelet. It will be a tight fit.


Place back onto your eyelet tool and clamp the eyelet shut, making sure the elastic hasn't slipped off and the eyelet has clamped down all the components.


Place on ponytail. You can even make tiny little bracelets from them.

If you're not using an embroidery machine, just sew up a heart on double layers of felt and attach your eyelet and elastic in the same way as above.

I thought it would be fun to use preloaded designs to make in-the-hoop designs with. Not everyone is a digitizer or wants to take the time looking for a design they downloaded who-knows-when.

I hope this was a helpful tutorial.

Monogrammed Luggage

I don't know if any of you have seen those quilted accessories inside of any boutiques or shoppes in your area, but we have them here in Alabama and I've seen them in Georgia too. They are usually cosmetic bags, quilted carry-ons, and backpacks in bright and funky colors and animal prints. I think you can usually find them in monogram shops.
Well, anyway, my mom gave me one as a present a couple years ago, and I'm just now getting around to monogramming my initials on it. She got me a quilted black and white zebra print with red accents. It wasn't necessarily my style, but I've actually learned to like it over time.




I created a monogram in my lettering software forgetting that I already created the same monogram a while ago. D'oh! I know. It's ok; now I have 2. Also my machine decided it wanted to slip a little while stitching. So for some odd reason there are random stitches that don't line up. All in all it did a semi-decent job.

I'll be searching for a smaller version of this bag for my little one, so she can have her own personalized bag for when we travel.

Pleated Slouchy Purse Prototype

While on the phone with my best friend last night, I drummed up this design for a purse that I wanted to test out. My best friend tried to encourage me to stay up and stitch it up, but it was already late and I was in the bed. However, I did set out my fabrics and my sketch for me to dive right into it today.

So I did.


I whipped up this vinyl and cotton pleated bag today. Let me just say, if I haven't said this before, I love love vinyl!

With that said, I made this bag from vinyl, printed cotton, solid lining, vintage strapping, and a snap closure. I seriously have forgotten that I had half of the materials that I worked with. I was wondering what I was going to use the vintage strapping that I found at a thrift store for and it came to me last night. I have about 3 or 4 more different types of it just sitting around.
Anyway. So the hardest part of sewing this bag was topstitching the vinyl opening once it was done. I still have a few places that I have to go over.












Even though it is a slouchy bag, I thought that the boxed corners would bring a tad bit of a structural aspect to the purse. It's fairly large, too. The bag itself measures 14"length by 15" width at base with 12" width opening and 9" length drop. Pretty spacious for essentials.

I need to head back to the local fabric shop; my vinyl stash is diminishing.

What have you worked on this weekend?

Chevron Stripes Manicure

Last night I decided to paint my nails after letting them roam free for about 2 weeks.


I went to my favorite nude polish: Wet n' Wild Megalast in Private Viewing. I added the stripes with L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polish in Black Sparkle. I love that the Black Sparkle actually has tiny flicks of ultra-fine gold in it.

For this manicure I simply polished my nails with the "Private Viewing" polish. Then decided which fingers I wanted as accent nails and painted graduating V's on the fingers. On one nail I did a regular V and the other finger I painted an inverted V. I then added a fast drying topcoat. It's a wonderful contrast and fairly simple to try out.

New Bags

This evening after working out and going over some lessons with my daughter, I decided that I would sew. It's been about a week (maybe a little less) since I've sewn anything and I didn't want to get into a slump about it. I decided I'd whip out some small bags.


I made a clutch and two makeup cases. All of them are zippered. I've been trying to play with my modern stash a little more just to use some of it up.







The clutch has a pleat on both sides and is lined with the same green dot fabric that is on the outside. I added a loop for a key fob attachment.









This one is a new cosmetic case for me. I used 3 different fabrics, quilted one side, and added a stacked monogram to it. I think it turned out pretty well. I'm not one to be super enthusiatic about monograms, but I sort of like the one I did. Next time I think I may just stick with one initial. It's pretty spacious. I attached a little loop on the side.







This is a smaller cosmetic bag that I crafted. This one, too, is quilted. No embroidery on this one. I lined it with the same fabric as I lined mine with. This bag size is for small essentials. I think it's a cute and useful size, however.

I had so much fun making these bags. Hopefully if I have time tomorrow, I can whip out another bunch. They come together pretty quickly once I get a process going. Look forward to these being added to my shop. Also I added the checkbook sets to the shop if you want to have a gander.

Have a good night!