My First A-Line Dress!!

One of my Christmas gifts was Martha Pullen's Applique book, which has the pattern for her reversible A-Line dress. (Kristen, it also has a pattern for a boy's one piece suit, aka jon-jon, so we should be good to go!)
Kathy not only bought the book, but had already traced the pattern for a size 4 dress and bought fabric so we could get started right away. The construction of the dress went quickly without complications. Probably the most tedious part was sewing on the buttons (8 total: 2 on each side of each strap), and thankfully Kathy volunteered to do that while I moved on to another project. :)
The first embroidery design we stitched on Kathy's swanky Brother embroidery machine was the monogram applique patch. I used a monogram freebie posted on Sew Forum and used the oval envelop in Embird to make it circular looking. The circle applique design came from My Embroidery Haven's yahoo group.


The second embroidery design was an applique butterfly from 4hobby.com


I was thrilled with how this dress turned out. And even more I love that it is two dresses in one!

Ordered hooded towel

Hey, I just remembered that I can post this now!
Early in December I made a hooded toddler towel that Stephanie had ordered for Siena, the daughter of mutual friends.



Before making this towel I attended a huge craft show where someone was selling hooded towels like these. They had figured out a great way to fold them so that the hood was visible, so I stole that idea. Fold in half lengthwise, roll toward the center and place hood on top. Makes for a nice presentation.

Merry Christmas, Dad!

Now, my dad's primary gift is a nice tool for his grill. But I had to embroider something for him! So I made a gag gift. If you are easily offended, feel free to ignore this post. :)

This idea was not original to me. It has become quite the craze with stitchers on Sew Forum. Yes, I actually stitched on toilet paper. A member of SF posted a great tutorial which I followed. The red work design was posted on SF for a short time (no longer available) and I added the text with Embird Alphabet #22.
Ready for a chuckle? Remember, you've been warned...
Dad's gift

Merry Christmas to our moms...

I opted to make our moms casserole carriers for Christmas. I got two pairs of quilted place mats from Wal-Mart. After stitching the embroidery designs, I added a buttonhole & button and stitched around 3 sides. They will serve as a decorative carrier to potlucks, an identifier for who made the yummy dish, and used as a hot pad underneath the pan as it's being served. They can accommodate up to a covered 9"x13" pan.

First up is my mom's. The design is from a set I got for free from Artistic Thread Works called Daily-Chore-Sticks Embroidery Design Set. The checkered border is a freebie from Embroidery Garden. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #17.

Kathy's design was also from ATW, a free sample of the Stick-Kitchen-Mice Embroidery Design Set.

Harold, you're gonna love this, AND I MEAN IT!

After successfully making several inserts for the Dollar Tree mugs, I decided to make one for my father-in-law Harold, but using the nice clear travel mugs available at Target. I found great fabric that looks like steam swirls on coffee-colored background. I searched Sew Forum for a design to go with my text "Harold's Starter Fluid" and found a car themed design that stitched perfectly. I was tickled pink. UNTIL I tried to put the insert in the silly cup. I had read from several other crafters that it was difficult to do with this mug, but it was nearly impossible!! It took me well over an hour. I was determined to get it in, but at 12:15AM I had to give up and finish the next morning. It was a battle of wills between me and the cup, and I won, but with casualties. The strategy that eventually worked (slowly but surely) was to use straight pins to push the embroidery under the lip of the clear plastic. I broke at least 7 straight pins doing it, and my index finger was sore for days! Once I healed, I determined it was worth the effort. And I'm pretty confident his enthusiasm this morning was genuine!

Merry Christmas, Amy!

As previously mentioned, my sister-in-law Amy has been making woven headbands this year. The amount that she has made and kept for herself has grown. In September a member of Sew Forum posted a hairbow holder she had made, and I decided to extend her idea to make a headband holder for Amy for Christmas.

Each ribbon has 12 slots to slip a headband through, so it can accommodate 48. I used 1.5" wide ribbon. I doubled the ribbon up and stitched across it every 2" to create little pockets to slip the headbands through. So for this particular holder I cut four pieces of ribbon about 52" long. Doubled it up and sewed 12 seams every 2". That created 48 pockets for headbands.
For the top, I cut a piece of foam board 8"x24" and glued batting over it. I cut my fabric 10"x26" and did the embroidery. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #17. My only regret is that I wish I had used the dark purple thread for "headbands" too. Oh well... I didn't have enough time last night to start over. The applique flower was a freebie on Sew Forum and stitched beautifully.

Once that was done, I glued the fabric down to the back of the foam board. Then I attached the ribbons at the 3", 9", 15" and 21" marks. For the top hangers I attached loops of ribbons at the 6" and 18" marks. Then I covered another piece of cardboard with fabric and glued it over the back to cover all the mess. I used Tacky Glue, and only time will tell if it will hold up...
We also bought her a curtain rod/quilt holder for her to hang it from. The headbands overlap, so it doesn't hang flat. It really needs to be away from the wall to accommodate for that.
Amy is hard to buy for, so I was really excited when I thought of this idea. She liked it, so it was a successful Christmas gift!

Merry Christmas, Brice!

Brice, my nearly 20-year old brother, is into music and Celtic stuff. I had nothing appropriate in my design stash, but thanks to lovely designers on Sew Forum, I found a couple to use relatively quickly!
First is a travel mug insert. I used a tribal cross design and added his name with Embird Alphabet #33 (using an envelope to make it slanted). It was perfect -- he loved it!

Second is a can koozie (ignore the Princess sippy cup... can you believe there isn't a pop can in our home??). I added his name with Embird Alphabet #2 (again in an envelope) to the guitar design.

Merry Christmas, Carlin!

Carlin is saving up for a new prosumer video camera. He's recently done some freelance jobs and ebay auctions to jump start this process, and is calling the fund his "camera dog". So my gift to him for Christmas was going to the bank to officially set up a saving account, and depositing extra money to get him to 25% down. To present this to him, I made this holder for the deposit book:

The card holder design came from Embroidery Garden (it's technically a Weigh In Book Holder). The design of the man with a camera was a freebie. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #2. Someday soon that will be Carlin Trammel running with a new video camera!

Snowflake Ornaments

After our staff party Friday, Cherri decided she had to have a name snowflake like the one I made for Mr. Mullinax. And then she decided she had to have one to give as a gift, too! :) Here they are...
Raines:

Bignon: