Clever Sewing Title (With Pun) Goes Here

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing lately, but here are a few things from the last few months.

Personalized bags and bibs … so much easier with my Silhouette Portrait , rather than back in the olden days when I'd cut the letters out by hand.



I saw this flannel fabric back in December and could not pass it up! Brown Dachshunds wearing tiny purple sweaters? Perfect pajama pants for Dora!



These were paired with a purple tshirt and gifted a few weeks after Christmas. She loves them!



I finally got around to sewing Theo's DIY badges onto his messenger bag.



I saw this fabric and had to make some napkins for the nutritionist in our family … it's full of things she always says, like "Vary your veggies!" and "Make half your grains whole!" with funny dancing foods. Too cute!!



Also, new napkins for Jeff (Star Wars and Simpsons) and Theo (Wimpy Kid and Phineas & Ferb) … love the variety of character fabric available, though I wonder what other projects people use it for! 

And one Dora project … she designed and stitched this little bunny! 

Patchwork Camera Strap

Hey, look! I made a cover for my camera strap!

I had an evening this week with nothing immediately pressing to do and decided to work on something fun. I looked through my sewing folder on Pinterest and picked this project. The tutorial is great - the only thing I did differently was to quilt the batting onto the scrappy piece before sewing it to back piece.

Clark liked the final product except for the two striped blocks ("too boring"), Dora thought the colors were "too brown," and Jeff said "boy, that will really man it up."



But I say - so cute!! I love projects that can be done in one sitting, and I had fun picking out fabric to go together. (And extra love for projects that can be done with materials already on hand, yay!) I also made a couple of key fobs - the green one first because I love that fabric, but then realized that it didn't match my key chain (hah!) so I made another one with the striped pattern.

My keys are always falling to the bottom of bags, so this has really come in handy this week. Would anyone like the other one? Leave a comment if you are interested - it's up for grabs! 

WFMW - Sewing Girl Scout Badges

Hello! This is my first Works for Me Wednesday post, and this one has changed my life! Okay, at least my relationship with Girl Scout badges. Some iron on, some do not, and even the ones that are supposed to iron on rarely stick well. I've tried Heat & Bond with fair results, and fabric glue was a bust. They are too thick to sew by hand, and I never attempted machine sewing, because who wants to keep changing the thread color?

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with my aunt who was a long time Girl Scout leader. She said, "Oh, I always sewed them on with clear thread."

CLEAR THREAD???

Who knew there was such a thing! I marched myself right over to JoAnn's and there it was! Right with the regular thread, just hanging out all casual-like. I brought that stuff home, loaded up a heavy duty needle and zigzagged my way to badge paradise.



No more peeled edges! No more worrying about badges falling off! I am loving this stuff! Honestly, this was one of my most satisfying moments of the week, and I just had to share the good news with everyone!



CLEAR THREAD!!! It works for me!

Latest Sewing

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing, but had a big order for baby sets recently.





I'm working on finishing up a stack of napkins this week to fill the Etsy shop (it's about time!) for back-to-school.

Cloth Napkin Shop Restock!

Finally! The Etsy shop has been updated, just in time for back-to-school.



Prints for boys - pirates, rockets, and monsters.



Prints for girls - rainbow cats, trees, blue flowers, and bright butterflies.



Prints for mom - brown birds, painted flowers, mod fruit. (I loved the fruit so much that I kept a set for myself, which means there is only one set in the shop! Get them while they last!)

Latest Sewing Projects

A bib and burp cloth for Lucy ...





... and another for Baby Maria.

This Week in Sewing

I dusted off my sewing machine this week to finish up some napkins and a few other small projects.



Clark got this tiny bowling set for Christmas and I've been wanting to make a something to keep it in. This was a quick little bag that went together in about 15 minutes. Love the pattern!



And remember this fabric? I finally got around to making a summer bag ... just in time for the end of summer. But now I'll have it early for next year. This took just over an hour to finish. How fun is it to sew a bag in the morning and use it in the afternoon? (Answer: super fun.)

Earth Day Project

So, Dora and I were talking about Earth Day a couple weeks ago and she wanted to make cloth napkins for the kids in her class. I originally agreed, because I thought it would be a good way to use up some of my scrap fabric. As the date got closer, I realized that actually sewing 17 napkins was so not going to happen, since I currently have a stack of Etsy work that's been sitting on my sewing table for about two months. We purchased napkins at The Christmas Tree Shop instead, which I realize is probably not eco-friendly, but it sure was time-friendly.



Dora traced and cut out each child's initial out of scrap fabric and ironed them on to the napkins with Heat & Bond. (What in the world did sewers do before Heat & Bond? And Heat & Bond Lite? It is fantastic!) She did all the work herself ... I already keep a collection of letter templates with my sewing supplies, so she used those for tracing. She lost some enthusiasm about halfway through the ironing, but I was proud of her for finishing up.



She made tags and we tied them up with more scrap fabric. She's planning on handing them out before snack time today. I love the idea, we're big fans of cloth napkins over here, and really hope the kids put them to good use.

Speaking of cloth napkins, Maria at ChangeDiapers , a great site for cloth diapering info, gave my cloth napkins a wonderful review this week and we're doing a giveaway! Visit this page to enter.

And in other news this week, I just printed some new notecards to include with Spotgirl and Etsy orders, and spent some time putting packages together.



The notesheets are made from old paper samples and I put some of my gajillion outdated business cards to good use by using them as decoration.



Yay, color!!

Latest Sewing

A couple bib and burp sets for a little friend who arrived last month.





Catching Clark contemplating the snow in our yard. Every time he looks outside, he freaks out that his basketball net is covered with snow and we have to remind him every time that he will be able to play again when the snow melts.



Him catching me catching him.

New Work on Etsy!

I took the day off yesterday (with the help of tv and dad) and updated my Etsy shop. I've had a new stash of fabric ready to go since November and was happy to add some new items. More to come next week!

Baking Monday - Chocolate Shortbread

Martha's Chocolate Shortbread .... mmmm. And a few more sewing projects from December:



Monkey bags.



Supergirl capes.

Cross-Stitchin' Tuesday

I've been working on these Minipops cross-stitch projects for the kids and finally finished them last week. The idea came from this Flickr set and this artist's work. (Cross-stitch Duran Duran? Seriously, how can you resist?) I would love to do a big series like the one featured above. I already have all the figures picked out but decided it might be smart to start small. I can't read in the car, but can sew (go figure!), so I've been taking advantage of our many long road trips to work on these projects.



Superheroes for Theo.



Sesame Street for Clark.



Fairies for Dora of my own design, based on the other figures. I made a ton of mistakes on the wings, don't count the stitches! Also, I accidentally made the middle fairy's skirt too short, so it looks like she has a little Marylyn Monroe skirt blow going on.



Here's a snowman project that I started when I was pregnant the first time around and had LOADS of time on my hands and no better way to fill it (apparently) than with cross-stitch. I did a bunch of projects that fall. This one for me was the last one started and then whoops! I went and had a baby, then two more, then before you know it, it takes eight years (EIGHT!) to complete one project. I finally finished this one up in the fall.



This project was from a kit that I tweaked a little bit and am very happy with the result.



My mom just found this in her sewing basket! I'm guessing I did this circa '82-83, when I was in middle school. Before I got to high school and became SO popular that I would never have time for trivial things like sewing. (BWAH-HA-HA!! Excuse me while I wipe away tears of laughter.)



Look how sloppy!



I've gotten much neater since then.