At Last - Sewing for Fun

This year I put away all ambitions of garment sewing and returned to my very first hobby love: Embroidery! 

I've accomplished a lot in the past few months, a few projects I'll share here:

isn't she sweet???

This little quilted pillow is a combination of applique and tons of stitching, plus hand-lettered personalization.   I loved every second of it!  The raincoat matches the corded pillow trim; back of the pillow is pink cotton.

I found the vintage transfer pattern over on the Flickr Hoop Love Vintage Transfer Finds.  It was retraced using Aunt Martha's red iron-on transfer pencils, which worked only so-so.  Since I was transferring onto pre-quilted fabric some of the lines didn't come out clearly.

The photo shows some yellow spots which aren't actually there.  Janelle, the pillow's proud owner, won't let it out of her sight!  I love happy customers!




Here is another pillow I stitched for the ladies of Kappa Delta, my daughter's sorority.   Again, I found the shamrock pattern from a vintage pattern photo stream on Flickr (my main source of inspiration).   She was stitched as a cameo applique onto a pillow I whipped together from leftover home dec cotton.  Baby rick-rack was used to finish the edges.

She's chain-stitched in three shades of green and sports a mini-skirt of french knots. Luv those pink lips!



This little guy just went home to his new owner, a little toddler who loves pillows just about more than anything!   When I saw the transfer design on Flickr's Hoop Love Vintage Transfers group, I knew this could be a winner!

His overalls, patch and hat are appliqued cotton fabric. Everything else is hand embroidered with three strand cotton floss. The only modification I made to the pattern was to redraw his mouth so he would have have a tongue to savor that delicious minnow!  I'm seriously in love with this little guy, and will probably make several more just because it has so much "awwwwww" appeal!


There's lots more to show, but I'll save those for future posts. 
Time to stitch!

What's on the table now 11/26/11

Committed to making Mom some beautiful pjs for Christmas with Butterick 5537, a classic front button shirt easy to alter for a high round back. Sorry, can't get the link thingie working this morning. Here's a shot:

You can't see that the pocket is actually large enough for a box of cigars. That piece is going on the copier for a quick reduction.

As for the pants, B5337 actually won't do because all views have a MOCK FLY and 84 yr old women aren't keen on wearing unisex garments. So I rummaged around the patten stash and found Simplicity 9505, from the 2 Hour Sewing line. Such genius! Very basic elastic waist pants with one side seam. After sewing up a size Small in capri length to prevent tripping over one's clothes, I think she's going to need a XS in leg width, and a Small in the waist.

I found a beautiful silky polyester at Jo Ann's last week at 50% off, a large floral print in shades of lavendar, pale pink and touches of light green. Very fetching for a silver haired lady, I can see pajamas made from it going like hotcakes at Dillards.

Sewing pjs is good quick sewing satisfaction. Not much opportunity for a wadder. Thank goodness, time and money are terrible things to waste.

A new label is born . . . or why I hate the mall

Mom has nothing (warm and stylish) to wear to church.
The mall is useless.
So maybe it's time for . . "Warm Clothes for Distinguished Women", henceforth to be called WCDW. I hate the word 'senior'.
WCDW's clothes requirements:
They will be made of wool (always lined), with pockets for kleenex, breath mints and glasses.
Jackets will have shoulder pads and other shaping qualities.
Pants will be very comfy and warm.
All pieces will be separates.
They will be colorful but never gaudy. Traditional but not stale. Classic but not predictable.
Michael Kors are you listening?
Can anyone actually pull this off? I don't know but JoAnn's is having a Simplicity pattern sale so I am plotting . . . 'cause I wasted two hours of my life at the mall yesterday.

Menu planning (or why I am channeling my Home Ec self)

This week we are eating:

Sunday dinner: Chuck roast, green bean casserole, little green peas (my son calls them leisure peas) and rolls. Dessert is pineapple upside down cake. It's 8 a.m. I better get busy.

The greatest thing since being a kid

is how I am describing my new contacts. They're the latest thing in bifocal lenses according to my optomitrist. Honestly, I could see PERFECTLY up close and at distance from the moment I put them in. No effort required, no squinty one-eyed antics, no drunken distorted feeling . . . just good clean vision the way it used to be. Newspapers, computers, tv, driving, everything in perfect focus. In fact, better than in focus because of the slight magnification effect, it's like 20/10 which I've never had.

So now my awesome badass Ray Ban progressives, worn four days, are being retooled for distance sight only, to carry me through on Saturday mornings and days where contacts just aren't comfortable. Which won't be too often 'cause I'm loving these things.

The lenses are called Air Optix and they're simply fantastic. What to do with all those older pairs of readers? I'm going to take them to Sunday School for those of us who simply can't/won't remember their glasses.

Me? I've been set free!