Sue's Christmas Order

Sue kept me pretty busy this fall with her Christmas order. It was fun to help her give lots of personalized gifts.
First, a rag bag for her daughter. This is a project that has been in the making for a long time. I found the nursing fabric last Christmas and purchased it, knowing Sue had interest in a bag for her daughter who had recently become a nurse. There was no immediate rush for getting it done, so we both took our time shopping for coordinating fabric, etc. Her family made an unexpected move at the same time my morning sickness hit, and I knew there was no way I could get the bag made before they left FL. She gave me a deadline of Christmas, which I met. :) It was finished in October, but I'm just now posting the pictures.



Sue also ordered 20 key chains to give as gifts. Again, she had purchased the ribbon before moving. I used Embird Alphabet #33 for all the names:

And finally I stitched 13 of the Name Snowflakes for her. I used Embird Alphabet #38 for all of these. I love how each name makes such a unique flake!

New Fall Purse for me!

Last year I made myself a rag bag out of Christmas fabrics I had bought years ago. At that same time I also purchased fall fabrics, and over the course of the last week or so I finally made myself a new bag to carry through Thanksgiving.

I added my monogram to this bag. It's pretty subtle with all the colors in the fabrics, but I think it turned out pretty. (Yes, that is my monogram... Janay is my middle name.) The font is one I've been wanting for a LONG time, but rather pricey. Recently it was on sale 30% off, so I decided to go ahead and get it. It's a beautiful monogram option I can now offer and I'm sure will be used lots. It's called Empire Monogram Font from Embroidery Arts.

Here's a quick peak inside... it has pockets of various sizes all around the perimeter, just like my Christmas bag (you can see more details at that post).

Second Rag-Style Diaper Bag

I guess the best form of feedback is getting an order! In November Tori received the rag-style diaper bag that Melissa had ordered. After Christmas Tori told me that she liked it so much that she wanted to order one for a friend. I got it done this weekend and delivered it to Tori this morning.

Tori's friend had a boy, and his initials are ERG. Tori requested a blue bag, and these are the fabrics I picked.

For the monogram, I used the Elevation Monogram from My Embroidery Haven.

The inside features 7 different pockets to stash goodies, just like Tori's.

Christmas Bag for ME!!

Even though I've been busy chipping away at my custom order list, and I still have lots to do, I decided to squeeze in a project for myself. My yellow and blue rag-style purse is pretty, but just totally out of season. So I decided to make a new rag-style bag with Christmas fabric. These fabrics came from a fat-quarter bundle I bought years ago and never used. It was nice to have a set of fabrics that went well together. Since I didn't have yardage of any of these prints, I couldn't easily make handles. I purchased some green webbing to use instead. That sure saved time!


A customer has asked me about putting a zipper in a rag-style bag. I told her I would experiment before committing to it. I spent a couple weeks brainstorming how to make it work and didn't come up with a good solution. This weekend when I was talking about it with Valerie, she suggested making a top panel the same size as the base and put the zipper down the middle. What a genius! It worked perfectly! This will especially make Carlin happy -- he complains about how stuff spills out of my bag if it tips over in the car.


And here's a look inside a filled purse. My wallet and another little zippered bag sit in the middle.

Personalized Rag-Style Bag

A friend (whom I will allow to remain anonymous) requested an orange and blue rag-style bag for her Gator sister-in-law as a birthday gift. One of the benefits of being from another state is that I don't have any strong allegiances around these parts, so it didn't pain me to make it as much as it did her to order it. I think it turned out really cute. Fortunately it is the wrong orange and blue, so I wasn't tempted to keep it as an Illini purse for myself.
I made the tab closure wider than my previous purses and put the monogram on it (using Embird Alphabet #33).


The inside features several pockets. Each bag I've made is an improvement on the last, and I think I've finally settled on a standard set of pockets. One side has a 4" and an 8" pocket (the 8" is perfect for a checkbook, 4" can hold a cell phone, sunglasses case or keys). The other side has two 6" pockets (for wallet or whatever else fits). Both ends have a pocket as well, and for one of them I added two lines of stitching to create a place to store pens/pencils.

I've got another bag cut out to make for myself. Hopefully I'll have that done in the next couple of days.

Shower Gifts for Tori's Twins

Tori recently had her boy/girl twins, and today was her baby shower with the women at Timberlane CoC. Several weeks back Melissa commissioned me to make a diaper bag like my rag-style purse. She wanted girl colored fabrics on one side and boy fabrics on the other. I found a cute print and picked out a blue and pink calico that would match. I monogrammed the babies' initials on each side.


The inside features several pockets. Two are the right size for a wipes container and a small stack of diapers. I hope the two on the ends hold bottles... I don't have any laying around here to check, but Annaliese's platex cups fit!

Even if it isn't the most functional diaper bag early on, Tori will be toting stuff for her twins for several years to come!

Melissa and a few others went in together to get the bag and fill it with lots of good stuff. I decided I needed to make a few more personalize items to coordinate. I did two pacifier clips, which I posted earlier, and these two burp cloths. The applique star design came from The Embroidery Market (actually I think it was a freebie from the yahoo group). I used the same fabrics as in the diaper bag and variegated threads for the satin stitch. The text was added with Embird Alphabet #2, and I used the same thread color as their monograms on the bag.


It turned out to be a nice ensemble.

Happy Mother's Day!

The following are pictures of the tote bags I made for my mother-in-law Kathy and Mom. Kathy is the proud owner of labradors, so picking her fabrics was a breeze (especially since she provided them! hee hee...) Mom loves blue, so once I found the floral print that seemed to be shouting out to me "this is the one" I was able to quickly select the rest of the fabrics. On these two bags, there are a total of 6 pockets. One of the side pockets is taller with extra rows of stitching to create slots for pens/pencils.
The bags arrived in Illinois in time for them to open them together before Mother's Day. Both are very pleased with the results!

Tote Bags

This week I made two new tote bags that our moms will be receiving for Mother's Day. In anticipation of posting those pictures (once they have been unwrapped!) I decided to post pictures of my previous tote bags. The peach & green was my first attempt at a rag-style bag, simply from looking at a picture. I was pleased with the results and have improved my design with each bag. The blue & yellow bag is what I currently carry as a purse.



Next my friend Valerie asked me to make coordinating totes for her girls to use for church, so they are a bit taller to accomodate coloring books and the like. We had fun shopping for fabric together with our little girls!