November 28

Last week was all about the turkey. I sewed a whole jacket the weekend before, but then Thanksgiving took over my time. My cousin Liz and I grocery shopped, baked, and cooked all week long. But after a successful holiday and a few days of recovery, it's back to sewing... hooray!

It's my step mom's birthday this week, so I'm working on a present with a bit of embroidery.

From my sketches you can see that I thought about embroidering a fat fluffy cat for her, but decided on a face based on one of her own creations instead.

I'll let you know how the present turns out, and I promise to finally take some photos of my newly sewn jacket as well!

October 20

Working on some gifties!

Embroidered pouches...

Cards made from recycled grocery bags and fabric scraps...

Lavender sachets made from scraps of my very own tie dye...

And citrus hair clips inspired by the Citrus Coasters from the Purl bee...

January 20

My embroidery thread box is in shambles because I just worked on a cute little handkerchief.

I received a cartoon me recently so I decided to make an embroidered me. Embroidered Natasha comes complete with hazel eyes, a felt rose hair clip, and gray tights.

November 14

I've been drooling over the jewelry from spinthread on Etsy for quite some time now. Her work combines two of my loves: embroidery and geometric shapes.
While I would love to own one of her pieces (hint hint! someone has a birthday coming up), I also thought it would be fun to try out the technique.
So far I've put together two necklaces. To make them I used embroidery floss on fabric, craft glued felt to the back, used embroidery thread around the edges, and added the hardware. It took quite a bit of time and work, but it was relaxing and I like how it turned out.

This chevron striped one was my second attempt. I think it's considerably better because I remembered to use some proper embroidery techniques like tucking in my ends (duh, way neater).

And here's my first one. It's still nice, but a little rough around the edges.

In other news, I went to Thrift Town the other day to buy a leather belt to use as a strap for a bag I'm working on, but I also happened across a real treasure in the jewelry case... a giant locket. I love old lockets and this find definitely made my day. I'm not so sure it would be all that comfortable to wear around my neck as it's rather heavy, but it sure is nice to look at.



My photo shoot was overseen by a little doggy with a little shadow. And now I'm blogging and listening to Joanna Newsom in the sun on the back balcony, so delightful. Warm weather in November? Wacky global warming.


By the way, I joined The Crafty Christmas Club blog created by Tilly. Check it out if you're interested, maybe you should even join! Oh and don't check it out if you don't want to spoil the surprise of your holiday gift from me.

September 1

My dad's birthday was on Monday so I made him some hand embroidered handkerchiefs as a gift.
To make the handkerchiefs I cut up the practice skirt from my BurdaStyle Book project. I cut out large squares, pressed the edges, and sewed them with a straight stitch. I drew the embroidery patterns on graph paper and then traced them onto the handkerchiefs using a disappearing ink pen.
I really enjoyed this project and want to come up with some more things to embroider. I'm thinking maybe some zany drawings in bright colors for round two?

The bow for the wrapping was handmade from strips of felt!

This little doggy has been my shadow all day long and really wanted to be in on the photos.

August 21

Here is the finished pouch that I made with my cross stitch bird as a front decoration. I lined it with some floral print cotton with colors that match up really well with the bird and added a zip closure. I love how it turned out and have been using it to carry my money and keys.

Last weekend I took a bunch of unfinished projects out of my closet and got to work completing them. Some of them were already super close to being done, so I'm getting a whole new wardrobe of dresses with little work. I'll take some pictures to share with you soon!