Nephew Loves Pirates

I found out my youngest nephew (age 2) loves Pirates, so of course, I had to embroider a pirate face on a shirt for him. And now he knows when he gets a gift from his Auntie Patty, it might have a pirate on it.

I am so happy that he enjoys his gifts that I just have to manage to find time to make some more pirate shirts for him during December.

November Projects - Camouflage Blouse

After embroidering a camouflage heart (from Embroidery Library designs), I realized the blouse just did not look "complete". So I embellished the entire shirt with hand-made appliques and crazy applique pieces until it looked kind of crazy and wild.

The neck of the shirt also got embellished with decorative stitches, using variegated thread.

I have camouflage pants, so now I have a set!

November Projects - Another Fabric Bowl

I seemed to have lost the month of November some how. I did, however, make another fabric bowl. This one was a fall theme.

Longhorn Sis's BD Gift

My lil' sis had a BD in November. Her alma mater for both her undergrad and graduate degrees are from UT. I felt she needed a UT tote to commemorate this.

Luckily, I found a sew kit to make a quilted tote. The directions gave me the impression it would be an "easy" project. But I should know there is no such thing as fast or easy in sewing. Still, it was not too, too bad. The binding and zipper were the hardest to work around.

Here is her bag.

And the lining was pretty cool with multiple pockets (including a zipped one).

For thanksgiving, I gave her a matching pouch purse to keep her secret items. Unfortunately, it took the snail mail system 3 weeks to get there and she got it this week (December).

This is her personalized UT pouch I created from scratch.

Kiddie Costumes

I had some kits to make kiddie costumes. I finally decided it was time to make them and send them on, especially before the kids outgrew them.

One was for Nathan and was a cape with flames on one side and checkered on the inside. It had a hood with horns, so he could be some sort of devil, I guess.

The other was a butterfly cape with a matching hood. This was sewn for Alexis. I added angel hair yarn in colors that matched the fabric to give it a more realistic butterfly look.

I was happy at how both turned out and the kids were very thankful (which was nice).






close -up on the angel hair yarn...

Halloween Fabric Bowl

I have been wanting to make a fabric bowl for at least 1 1/2 years now. I have video clips from a couple of shows and had even purchased a book on fabric boxes (which I also want to make). In the last 6 months, I had purchased all the necessary supplies.

And FINALLY I made my first bowl, using Halloween fabric. Now, it did not get completed by Halloween. It was finished on 11/1/07. But like I told Chris, "I've never been this early with a project. I am finished 364 days in advance!"

Here are various views of the bowl. (They can be "flipped" inside out to have either fabric on the inside or outside.)

Halloween Pillows

Nothing fancy about these - I just wanted to make some quick pillow covers for our sofa in a Halloween theme. I made 2 matching of the Green Witches and 1 of the blue scare crows.

Flower Power

My niece just had a BD on 10/30. Her school colors are maroon and gold. I found some warm-ups that she loved in maroon. (I embellished those with crystals.) Then I found this solid yellow tank at Old Navy. I embellished it with Sunflowers that I appliqued, using a zig zag stitch to tack it down.

Now, she can wear a gold turtle neck underneath it and wear her school colors.

Fun In The Sun (& Rain)

I've been wanting to embroider on an umbrella for at least a year now. And I finally gave it a whirl a few weeks ago. Of course, if it was going to be for me, it had to have pink and had to have a ballet theme. The stitching went well after I took the umbrella completely apart. And luckily, luckily I was able to put the umbrella back together again.

Now this makes rainy days fun!

BD Gift for Amy

Knowing Amy would be in Tawaiin for the holidays, I thought she might like to have a one-of-a-kind embroidered shirt to wear. I am new to fringe, but I think it turned out fine.

This is a Ho Ho Ho Santa Shirt made especially for Amy!

Bathing Suits

Amy asked to see the bathing suits I made, so here they are -

I made both the top and bottom of this one (though the top was made 8 years ago and then renovated this year).



But as you can see from the bottom, I ran out of this fabric I have had for 9 years and knew I could not find it again, so I made the back navy lycra. (The panty is half and half too.)



On this next one, I purchased the top (easier this way) and made the bottom when I could not find a matching bottom after swim suit season had passed.

Not Sewing - But Exciting Stuff

My friend, Caprice, gave us a house-warming gift 6 years ago this October. It was the beginning of what would some day be a Plumeria plant/tree. To be honest, when I first saw the stump in a plastic, I didn't know what to think, even if it was from Hawaii.



I am happy to report, with lots of TLC, our Plumeria (named Plumeria) is doing very well and has even blossomed for the 2nd year in a row.

Here is how Plumeria looked when she was at her best blossoming of the summer. (It's hard to tell from the balcony shot, but she is now taller than I am and probably stands at 5 foot 4 inches. Not too shabby for starting out about 6 - 8 inches with no leaves.)

Brother's Fun Gift

My brother loves Harleys. As a Sept BD gift, I embroidered a Harley logo on a auto trash bag for him. It's almost a shame that it will have trash in it.

Helping Friends In Times Of Need

Our sewing buddy Beth had some serious health issues this year. I asked the sewing gals if they would pitch in their own personalized squares for me to make Beth a tote. This way Beth would know we were thinking of her and lift her spirts.

The gals generously said yes. (Even Lisa's young daughter pitched in.)

After I got all the squares, I put together a tote for Beth to take to the hospital to carry her stuff back and forth. (Though when I saw all the flowers she got, I quickly realized she needed about 10 totes!)



Here is how the tote ended up -











I told my sew expert friend, Alicia, I didn't expect it to take so long to put together especially looking back and seeing how I ended up using a solid black background fabric. But she certainly understood when she commented on the different components... like working with satin (slippery) ribbon around all 8 of the squares and adding 4 pockets in the lining.

As is common with me, I thought I could finish this in 3 or 4 hours max. Instead it took me more like 10 - 12 hours. Live and learn.

As you might guess, I am not so anxious to make a 2nd memory tote bag. But it was fun to learn and create.

Gifts for a 6-yr-old

My little friend, Victoria, turned 6 at the end of August. She has become quite the artist, so I thought it might be appropriate to put together a craft activity notebook for her. I used her own artwork and printed it on fabric paper. Then I sewed it to fabric that I wrapped a notebook with. The notebook was filled with markers, stickers, special paper, etc. I was glad when I heard she really liked her custom-made gift.

Front with a photo fabric print out of a foam art work Victoria made for me last summer. I scanned the image into the compute before printing it on fabric.



The back had 2 of her Doodles that she made for me this year.



The inside with some of the fun stuff.



And using my new Kaleidoscope software (that I got for my BD), I made 2 bonus pillows. One if flannel with BD balloons. And the other is cotton in her favorite color blue (really aqua).

More Dining Room Curtains

As many times as I have made curtains for my dining room, you would think we have 4 dining rooms in our home. Truth is, I never could really find "the look" I was hunting for. It was half-started in my mind and I just could not put it together until I made these curtains this summer.


Finally! I found the tropical themed look I was searching for.


And I love my new curtains! Reminds me of Hawaii or the tropics. Some day, I may need a 2nd vacation home in one of those places so my curtains have the "perfect home". :-)

Rachel is a Good Teacher

Rachel taught us sewing gals how to make crazy patch purses. She was so nice in that she had her big table set up for all of us to bring our sewing machines and sewing fabrics and supplies. She was WAY organized.




Because I finished my "purse" a few weeks after I left her place (and on my own), it ended up being a tote rather than a purse. I was happy with how it turned out. With the big size, I use it to tote shopping bags, change of clothing for after-ballet-classes on Saturday, and other fun things.





Here it is-



It's hard to tell from this picture, but I did put several pockets inside. They are even in rows over each other.



I'm sorry I have to miss the 9/29 SGSG sew gathering lesson this time. I'm sure I would have learned a lot again.

Embellished Jeans 4 Me

Amy took me to a Viking class for embellishing jeans (my first ever class for any sewing-related thing). They taught us the best way to embellish jeans. All of us in class wished we had not brought our worse jeans (in case we messed up), as they all turned out good.

Here are how mine ended up.

Adding To Dress 4 Angel

Julia gave Angel a jean dress. It had a big red flower embroidered on the bottom. I thought it needed more pizzazz, so I added multiple flowers on the top (with crystals, of course)...

Another for Cook's Children's Hospital

I am so-o-o behind on my intention to make several pillow cases for Cook's Children's hospital. I made 4 or 5 last year (November) and have only made 1 this summer. It remains on my to-do list to make at least 5 in 2007, as I am sure the sick children love their special pillow cases.

Julia's Dolphins - July 2007

My friend, Stephanie's now 6-yr old daughter, Julia, was in love with Dolphins and on her way to SeaWorld this summer to see Shamu. So I put together a few dolphin-related gifts for her.

Here they are -