Putting sewing skills to the test!

Isn't she a beauty? My very first corset (waist cincher). I finally bought a grommet maker.
I got the pattern from tute on Craftster.
It was pretty easy to draft up and make. I upcycled some plastic laundry detergent bottles for the boning.


The back side. I wanted to use tow different ribbons to lace it up.
It's on a pillow so I could lace it up easily.


This is the front. I managed to line everything it up nicely. I'm proud!


It is a photo to show how nice and neat the eyelets are. :)

I'm going to make another one, a little larger. This one is petite, but it fits very nicely.

Last christmas gift done!

This one is for my husband's stepmother. She really enjoys coffee to the point that she roasts her own beans. And on occasion we get the wonderful joyful bliss of home roasted beans too. Yum!


The cup, sugar bowl and coffee pot are stitched using browns and the 22 ct. aida is a soft pink.
It was a bitch to get the buggers nice and straight, so I ended up taping the fabric to the frame.


The windows are 3 inches by 3 inches. The frame itself is a matte black metal.
Now that I look at these photos again my fridge is a good reference for how tall the frame is. :)

Now I can go back to my regularly scheduled projects... yeah right, wishful thinking, HA!

Christmas Gifts Finished Part 1

The Ewe are Special to Me doorknob hangy thingy!

And the back of it. A nice farm theme.

Flip flop doorknob hangy thingy!

And the back are some more sheep.

The Chocolate Makes My Day pillow! And the back is just some fabric that matches. I didn't realize how crappy this picture was until after I wrapped up the gifts. :(

I have one more gift that I'm working on I should have it done in a few days. It's turning out pretty cute so far.

Sheepies!

I'm happy with this one! It's my first time using waste canvas. I was a little confused on how to remove it when I was done but I did it!!

The stitching turned out aright (a little too large for my tastes, but oh well, it's not for me) on it, then I pressed it which was a bad idea. But hey, I'm not crying over it.

I had some pink plaid fabric laying about and thought that it would be cute with the sheep on it. It is also a christmas gift for one of my sisters-in-law.


Now I have just one gift left to finish. Not sure if I want to make another pillow or frame it or make a table runner thingy. Not sure...

Another chistmas gift!

This is another free design from the Jaylann website.

I changed a color on it because well, I didn't have the right color at the time. :( but it turned out ok.


Stitches 14ct aida. Took about 6 hours to complete. It was fun.

Chocolate!

This is one of the christmas gifts that I am making this year. It is for one of my sisters-in-law.
I going to make it into a pillow.
I will post finished photos of all of the gifts together.


It is done on 14ct aida. I want to call the color of the fabric oatmeal or multi-grain, 'cause that's what it looks like to me. :) I hope she likes it.

I got this pattern off of the Janlynn website. Yay for freebies!

I can't resist a sale!

Last week Jo Ann Fabrics had all Simplicity patterns for $1
So I ran over there and picked up the pattern that I have had my eye on for years! I could never really get myself to fork over $14 on a pattern, so when I saw the sale I HAD to buy it. I have been wanting to make a corset for a few years now.


Then this week I was wondering around in Hobby Lobby and saw that they had McCall's patterns on sale for 99 cents! So I thought that I would pick up a fun one that wasn't clothing. The cakes and cupcakes look so cute! I have a lot of fabric remnants laying about so that will take care of those. :)
And last night I was at Walmart with my hubby and I picked up another pattern for a cute summer dress. I've been obsessed with light flowy dresses lately, and been wanting them badly.

I have a sewing project that I have almost done with. All that I have left is the buttons holes!


But my machine started acting up on me before I could finish the first hole! Grrr...
I WILL NOT give up! No I won't. I just needed a break before I threw it out the window.

The thing that gets me about patterns are that they are not "regular" sizes that I'm use to. If I buy a shirt off the rack its a size 6 but these patterns run small so I'm like a size 8 or 10. It drives me nuts.

I'm coming along on all my christmas gifts that I'm working for everybody. I'm almost done with one. I will post it when it's completed.

Finally an update!

I started working on christmas gifts for my family.
I finished my mother-in-law's first. It's just a little something that she can put anywhere.


I have untreated wooden frames laying about so I diluted some brown paint and made a paint wash to give the wood a darker and "older" look to it. I think it looks pretty good with it.
the cross stitch project took about a little over 4 hours to complete.

Now I'm working my oldest sister-in-law's gift.
I just hope that they like them.

quick update

I'm still here!!
I've have some life issues come up and they took up a good chunk of my time. But now I'm stitching again and working on christmas gifts. I promise that I will start posting pictures soon of the finished products.

I hope everyone has a save and Happy Halloween!!!!

Hoot!

I like owls, so I made some. I started out making a few tiny ones. I liked them so much that I made large ones. I am very happy with how these fellas turned out. I posted progress pics to share.



I love to make templates. It makes projects flow better for me, and I can use them over and over again.



I cut everything out first and place the piece where I want them to go. I used fleece and felt on these fair feathered friends. I have mixed feelings on working with fleece. It's too stretchy, and I had trouble lining up the front and back pieces.


I made a red and blue one. I stitched them like I stitch all my plushies. It gives them the handmade feel.

My favorite part of these plushies are their "eyebrows".
I plan on making more in various colors.
I'm thinking about putting them up on my Etsy shop.

No needle and thread today

I haven't been able to do any cross stitching for the past two weeks. :(
But I had a really good reason, really I did!
I helped my sister make wedding gifts for a couple that we are friends with. And they asked me to make their cakes along with cupcakes and cookies.
So I was pretty busy.
I am a professional cake decorator by trade so I jumped at the chance to do something fun. If you are interested, feel free to check out my Flickr account, to see what all that I made.


I am very happy with how things turned out and everyone loved my cake, that I want share with you all here.

Now back to stitching up Christmas gifts!!

Questions

I have a couple of questions for all those stitchers out there in stitchyland.

1. where do you get those fabulous frames?

I look at other peoples completed work and they have the coolest frames! Is it a second hand find or garage sale find? Or maybe a dollar store find? I hate to plop down a butt load of money for a frame. My project only cost me a dollar or two. I certainly don't want to spend too much more on a frame. Sadly most of my work isn't framed. They sit in a pile in a drawer, waiting for framing or pillow-ing. :)

2. where do you get your charts from?

Most of my charts and patterns come from the internets! Although I do have a large collection of books and magazines and such, but they are almost as old as me. But I do love to pick up a British magazine from time to time if it catches my eye. They seem to have more fun and whimsical content.

3. What does your significant other think of your hobby?

Mine likes it because it's sew (haha, get it? sew, so) cheap. And it produces cheap but handmade gifts for around the holidays. He wants me to make some sprites (old video game characters) for him.

And just so this post isn't just words. Face it, wordy blogs can be a bit boring looking. :)
Here is a photo of some hand bags that I have appliquéd.


It's only a few bags I have made more of time. They are fun and easy. My favorite is the heart and cross bones.
And since this my blog I will add that they can be purchased through my Etsy shop. :)

More on the shoe sign

I showed my sister the finished cross stitch and she LOVED it! That was a load off of my shoulders!
Then we took it with us to a couple of different fabric stores and picked out some vintage-y looking material.
We are going to make it look quilted. It will have little "pinwheels" to look like flowers to kinda frame it. I can't wait to finish it. I will most definitely post pics of the final product.

New territory

I have been stitching for about 17 years and I have never used even weave or a wooden hoop.

Today I can cross those items off my list of stuff I haven't worked with yet. In fact those two things are the only items on said list. (hehe)



I normally use metal tension hoops, and aida fabric.


This particular project I just finished is for a friend's wedding present. I can post it here because I don't think that she knows that this blog exists. It will be made into a wall hanging that my sister and I are working on together.

I use a free chart from DMC for the shoe, and my sister made up the little poem.
Our friend has a sign that hangs on the outside her door to her apartment that says something about no shoes allowed. It's just a piece of paper, and we thought that this looks way more classier.

I am very proud of how the lettering turned out. I really haven't done a project with words. And with this fabric was a bigger challenge, but a lot of fun.

Coin Purse

I made a coin purse in the shape of one of my Monsterously Cute monsters!



He is made just like the real thing. Felt and thread, but instead of stuffing him I lined him with green cotton fabric.


I'm not sure if it's something that I want to make to seel or it's just a one time thing. Still thinking about that one...

Fiona

I love stuffies!
I love making them and I think that I will never stop making them. They are just too much fun. And easy!
I made this cutie from a book that I bought a few years ago. And I lovingly named her Fiona. She really only took me a couple hours to make. I had found some argyle socks in a dollar bin at a store a few years back and just knew that they were destined for a greater purpose.
Her "ribbons" are made out of another mutilated sock. She took about roughly two socks to make her body.

She is completely hand stitched. I could have used a machine for most to the stitching but I felt that she needed to be all hand stitched. I think I wanted to torture myself or something like that.

This is a very good reason to keep all those socks that the sock monster eat the partners of.

I made another one of those cuties before a couple of years ago for one of my sister-in-laws.
His name is simply Argyle.


Perfectly mismatched socks need not go to waste any longer!

If you are interested in the book I used, it's called:
Stupid Sock Creatures, by John Murphy
There a lot of fun patterns and ideas, you could make thousands of them!

A fun gift!

A friend recently gave me a mini cross stitch card as a gift. She brought it back from her visit to see her family in the UK.
It's only 3inches by 3 inches. I can't wait to whip this one up and display it in my living room!

Another dress!

This is my second dress.

It is the same print (the fabric) but different color as the other one. And the top is a different style.

Unfortunately I do not have a zipper long enough for it yet to complete it. But I think I did a better job on this one because I lined up the seems better on it.

Now all I need is a cute pair of sandals to go with them.

A visit to another world...

I've been busy with a big project so I haven't posted in a while. But it was worth it!

I have been sewing a dress!
Sorry no cross stitch this time, but it does involve a needle and thread.

I bought a butt load of fabric a couple of years ago for $1 a yard (how can you pass that up?!?).
I bought 4 yards of the green and 4 yards of the same design in pink. I'm currently working on the same dress but in a different variation with the pink fabric.
It's a McCall's pattern that I bought two years ago and forgot that I have all this stuff. I was bored and finally made it!
I was so happy with how it turned out that another is in the works.



It is a little tight in the ribcage area, but unfortunately I'm skin and bones there so I can't lose the weight there. But it's not too uncomfortable. And I need to adjust the straps so the chest area fits a little more snug.


In the back is a zipper and the top part ties. My hubby wasn't home to help with the photos so I can't get a pic of the back. :(
But after this project I feel more confident with my sewing skills to make more clothes.

Something different!

This post is not a cross stitch project for once. But it does involve a needle (and pins)and thread!



I've wanted one of these for a long time. I just never wanted to buy one. I thought to myself a while that I would make one, and then I forgot all about it. Typical me.



I took me about 10 minutes tops to make it. I put a piece of cardboard in it so I wouldn't poke myself every time I would use it.



I used some stuff that I just had laying around. Scrape fabric, thin cardboard, and elastic.
It was very easy. I use my sewing machine, and just hand stitched the end. And Ta Da!

I want to make more now. Maybe I'll make one for my sister and my mom.

Sugar and Spice!

Wow, sorry it's been nearly a month since my last post but this post what show you why I haven't posted in a while. :)

It is called Sugar and Spice. It was designed by Dale Burdett. It's the second design that I have done by her and I love her stuff. (although some looked a little dated but that's ok, thay are for the 80's)
It was stitched on 14 ct. aida
It's designed for an oval frame. But I'm not going to frame it.
I stitched this for my sister. She wants to do Holly Hobby type decorations for her kitchen, and when I saw this one I knew that she would love it.



This project has had the most french knots ::shudder:: in one design that I have ever done! And I'm very happy to say, er, type that I have gotten over my aversion to french knots. YAY!
::does happy dance::
They are on her bonnet, bloomers and apron.

My First baby theme!

I have never done a baby theme before. None of my friends are the baby type. And I'm not having one anytime soon.

A co-worker is pregnant and we are throwing her a baby shower. Which is tomorrow and I finished this today O.0
The reason why we are throwing one and not her mom is a long story. But anyway...

I wanted to stitch something up for her. I didn't have a long enough notice to do a big one and I didn't know what she was having until three days ago (he was shy).



I like those doorknob pillow hangy thingies. So I made it into one!
I'm very pleased with how well it turned out.

The pattern I got out of a booklet from the 80's, called I Love Miniatures, by Dale Burdett.