Christmas Sweat Shirts!

I had a productive evening participating in the first of 2 Friday Night Sew Ins for December. I needed some Holiday Sweatshirts, and now I have 3 new ones.

This is the first one that I worked on. I stitched the Merry Christmas Sleigh in Filigree design from Embroidery Library using red and metallic gold threads. I used a coordinating fabric for binding the sleeves, neckline and lower edge of the shirt. In the future, I would leave the lower band in place, the fit is just better with the ribbing than with the fabric trim.
I could not find a women’s sweatshirt in black at Walmart, so I tried one from the men’s department. The fit in the arms is WAY too huge.

This is the second sweatshirt. I stitched the Damask Santa Sleigh, also from Embroidery Library, on a white sweatshirt using a pretty Christmas Red thread.
I marked my placement lines with a yellow Chaco Liner, the fabric marker with the wheel, and was surprised to find that I could not remove the marks after I stitched my design (they do not show up in the photo, but are obvious on the shirt). Due to this, I decided not to embellish this shirt any further.

This is the third, and probably my favorite, of the three. I stitched the Very Merry Flamingo Christmas design, again from Embroidery Library, on a grey sweatshirt. I also removed the sleeve and neckline ribbing and replaced it with a pretty pink fabric that coordinates with the colors in the embroidered design.
Like the first one, I also removed the lower band of ribbing, but did not like the way the shirt hung, so I put it back on. In the future, I will be leaving this lower band of ribbing in place.  This shirt was inspired by another that I saw recently in Embroidery Library’s Facebook photos.

There is another Friday Night Sew In next Friday night, you are welcome to sign up and join in on the stitching.

October 2011 FNSI ~ My Projects

I got started on FNSI in the afternoon since by time Friday night rolls around, I am running low on energy.

My first FNSI project was to machine embroider a t-shirt for Halloween. The design is Black Hat Society Witches from Embroidery Library. I had room in my hoop to add an additional line of text under the witches.

By time I got started on my 2^nd project, I was winding down. I got all of the parts and pieces cut, and even fused parts of the pumpkin, but that was as far as I got.  This is one of the mini wall quilts, called Little Quilts Squared by  The Wooden Bear.    This particular mini quilt is called October Scare.

I thought I would get around to finishing it today, but the day is slipping by and I have had other things to occupy my time. I still might get it done later tonight.

Thanks again to Heidi and Bobbi for hosting these monthly sew-ins, they always motivate me to spend just a little bit more time in my sewing room.

Going to the Stitching Sisters Embroidery Bash this Week End

My friends and I are attending the Stitching Sisters 2 day Embroidery Bash here in Phoenix this coming week end. 

We each embroidered similar t-shirts to wear to the event. This is the one that I will wear for the first day.

My friend,Carole, used her embroidery software to design the “Stitching Sisters” font and I combined a design I purchased from emblibrary.com . I did have to tweak it all a bit to fit into my hoop.
I will wear the other one that I blogged about previously for the second day.

I am looking forward to spending a couple of days with my friends learning some new embroidery techniques. 

I will also try to make a small tote bag to take along, but time is getting short so I may not get one done in time.

September 2011 FNSI ~ What I Worked On

I spent a little bit of time just finishing up a couple of ongoing projects, then it was time to do something just for FNSI.

I started with an oversized white t-shirt, the ones that you can pick up in the craft department of Joann’s or Wal-Mart for just about $3 each, and embroidered a design onto the front.

 I really need to perfect my stabilization abilities for this type of project, but I am getting there. I intend to also do a fit make over on this shirt. I have tried it on a couple of shirts already, but have not been happy with the end result. I will try a different approach on this one and will make a blog post on the finished result.

The embroidery design I used is Dahlia Trio from Embroidery Library.

~*~

The second project I did was to do a sample stitch out of a design that I digitized.

I am thinking of embroidering this design onto a scrub top I will be making soon. I hated to just throw out the sample, so decided to make it into a mini mug rug for my desk.

I was able to use the stitch out and practice free motion quilting (with the help of a small glass of wine).

I didn’t want the binding to be bulky, so stitched just a single layer, cut 1 inch wide, to the front and then turned under the raw edge on the back. I really should have cut the binding strip wider so that I would have more raw edge to turn under on the back.

The back side of the binding is a bit wonky, but this was a practicing my skills project. I think it turned out cute.

Thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for hosting Friday Night Sew In each month. It is truly a motivator to spend some time in the sewing room.

My FNSI Projects

I have been wanting to improve my technique for making zippered top bags/pouches. I have made these on occasion in the past, and was never really happy with how the zipper looked when the bag was finished. Tonight I made 2 bags that are basically the same. Both were embroidered with the same design, the fabrics were similar but different colors and the second zipper turned out much better than the first.

I have seen tutorials and read in instructions in books that demonstrate putting a fabric cover on the zipper ends.

I made the white bag first. Because the zipper cover was too short it didn’t make the zipper lay the way I wanted it to.

On the purple bag, I left more of the zipper cover at each end and it looks much nicer and neater, but I think that next time I will make them just a bit shorter so that the zip top can open wider.

There are a million uses for these bags and now that I am happier with the end result, I will be making many more for myself and for others.

My FNSI Project ~ April 2011

I looked through my PHD pile (Projects Half Done) and nothing jumped out at me begging to be completed right now.
I looked through the many inspirational photos that I have saved to my computer and saw a million fun new projects that I wanted to start.
I finally decided that I was going to start a new project. I wanted something that I could complete most of the way Friday night and if need be, finish on Saturday. I wanted to use from my stash and I wanted a project that was current for the season.
I decided to make a small wall hanging using the Easter Tweets embroidery design from Emblibrary.com. Above and below the main design, I embroidered the words
How do you know where the Easter Bunny has been?
Eggs marks the spot!

Finally, the backing and binding were attached.
I think it turned out very cute. I am happy that I can participate in FNSI!