pin cushion

I saw this tutorial from My Go-Go Life

and I had to make one!

Of course I used some delicious Liberty of London scrap (3 different prints)
and some peach kona solid.
I also covered a button in Liberty.

I liked it, but I had to try another version,
and after the paper pieced sewing machine,
I wanted to do more easy sewing.

For this one, I used some scraps from Miss C.'s quilt,

(5 different prints, 1 solid and 1 batik for the button),

I think it worked well too.

I was in need of cute little presents for some

of my sewing buddies,

I hope they like them!

Happy sewing!

paper pieced sewing machine

Have you seen all the new paper pieced patterns that have came out lately?

They are amazing.

You can see everybody's work on the Sew Out Loud Flickr group

So of course I had to get on it

and sew at least one of them.

I decided to start with this one from Charise Creates.

The "vintage sewing machine and notions" is a little easier than the "vintage studio",

but still pretty advanced, well at least more challenging than all the animals I made before!

(I still need to embroider the needle!)

I have very few fabric with words on it, so I was a little limited, but I was able to use the one
I had in quite a few places, like the bottom of the machine, the button jar,

and the thread.

The fabric I used is Vintage Notions by Amy Barickman,

it has a lot of different block, making it interesting.

Overall I am pleased with the result,
but I am taking a little break from paper piecing...

And I am keeping it for myself!

Happy sewing!

fabric book, part2

Here is the second part of the fabric book

I made for my niece's first Bday.

I really liked the idea of dress-up dolls that Girl. Inspired used in her book.

So I did my own version with these dolls!

The fabric is from American Jane (snippets), I purchased it many years ago,

keeping it for a special occasion,

well it was fun to use some of it!

I just fused the dolls and zigzagged around them.

I cut a few simple clothes, interfaced them so they would be easy to play with.
I made a simple envelope to store the clothes, with a Velcro opening.
I covered the top of the felt envelope with some fabric,
I hope it will make it sturdier for the little hands!

Since the dolls might be hard to play with for a while,

after all my niece is only 1,

I went with some conventional play book tricks:

Peek-a-boo!

I machine embroidered Peter Rabbit on linen,

appliqued it to the page, 

and added some fabric to cover it.

I made a velvet bunny from this pattern from Revoluzzza ,

the face is made of felt with hand embroidery details. 

It looks quite plain on this photo,

but the texture is great, perfect for little hands exploration!

I machine embroidered a happy face (same design than Miss C.'s jacket)

on denim and made a pocket out of it.

The white bunny is also machine embroidered, in the hoop technique,

I got the pattern a few years ago from Swak Embroidery,

but it seems they are not there anymore.

Apparently the bunny is Baby K's favorite part

of the book!

Happy Birthday, Baby K!

Happy sewing!

fabric book, part 1

I have been working on a special project

for my niece's (baby K) first birthday.

I decided to make her a fabric book.

I was inspired by the quiet book of Girl. Inspired.

Hers is beautiful, she has a great sew-along tutorial.

I of course changed it a little, hers was made for an older girl.

For the cover, I used a pattern for an embroidery design by French Knots

and made it into an applique that I machine stitched.

I hand embroidered the face details,

and I used my embroidery machine to stitch my niece's name.

It gives the cover a little retro look.

The first page is totally based on the tutorial,

I made a lady bug with black felt,

red pattern fabric and a 4inch zipper.

I did not make any little bugs, I was too afraid she would eat them,

at one, everything goes in the mouth!

The next page was a lot of fun to design: water based!

If I remember babies properly, they like to touch and feel different textures,

so I used interesting fabrics for appearance and feel.

I made my own pattern for the mermaid

and appliqued her by machine.

The water is some Halloween lame fabric, very shiny!

I cut out some happy and smiley sea creatures that were also machine appliqued,

a lot of zigzagged edges in this book!

Next page is a fish bowl,

well octopus bowl!

I used another fish fabric for the background of the bowl,

and applique over it some tulle.

I first bind the tulle with some blue cotton to made it sturdier,

little hands can be really rough!

With my embroidery machine, I made a little octopus on some white linen,

put some batting inside as to make a little pillow,

it is interactive but there are no danger of swallowing!

Next time I will share the rest of the book,

I hope she likes it!

Here is the second part of the book.

Happy sewing!

 

doll brownie vest

The Brownie vests are made for Miss C.'s doll troop
are based on her own vest.
I simplified a few details, like her badges,
but I kept the shape and binding around the vest.

here is the pattern I made for the doll vest: Google doc link,
it is a one piece pattern with only shoulder seams.

I made the vest a few different ways
from true to the original to fast and almost no sewing.

Let's start with the one with binding.

First I cut the pattern on the fold and cut some binding (1 inch wide on the bias).
If you can find the binding in the same brown that your fabric,
 you can skip that step!

I folded and ironed the binding, first in half, then each side in half again,
it is very narrow, it is best to do it without steam to protect the fingers!

I bound the arm holes with the binding, enclosing all the raw edges,

stitching both sides at once.

I opened the binding and slipped the edge inside the binding,

sewing both sides.

With right side together, I stitched the shoulder seams

with a straight stitch and zigzagged the edges.

I applied the bidding to the front and neck region like I previously did 

on the arm holes.

And then I finally applied the binding to the bottom edges.

The last step is to turn inside the raw edges of the binding and

hand stitched them.

The next version is a lot faster:

I skipped the binding,

and just turned inside a little of the fabric and zigzagged the edges.

It is not as neat and precise but it is really fast.

And for the last and fastest version,
I used felt and just stitched the shoulder seams.

It is easy enough that children could make their own for their doll.

The pattern does not fit on a precut piece of felt.

After the vests were made I decorated them to resemble
Miss C.'s own vest.

The badges are made of felt, just triangles.

I copied the general colors and placement

and whipped stitched around them with brown embroidery floss.

The numbers are embroidered in white with a back stitch (3 threads)

and surrounding box in brown (1 thread).

I also stitched the ribbon with the 2 insignia: the flower and the elf.

The contour is back stitched in brown (1 thread),

the flower is made with lazy daisy stitch in orange (2 threads)

and the elf is also made of different size lazy daisy stitch in gold.

The 100 year insignia is made of felt with 100 embroidered in green (1 thread)

in back stitch and lazy stitch.

I still need to find a small American flag,

I hope I can find an small iron-on patch at the fabric store,

it is just too hard to embroider 3 of them!

Updated version:

I managed to find a mini flag at my local fabric store "G Street",

now the vest is complete,

well it could use a few more patches to match Miss C.'s progress!

Of course the same vest can be made in all the other girl scout color:
blue for Daisy, green for Junior, tan for Cadette/Senior/Ambassador.

Happy sewing!

doll brownie troop

Today it is the 100th anniversary of the Girl scouts.

My daughter is a brownie, she was a Daisy when we lived in Ohio,

and just loved it.

After we moved, I asked her what activities she would like to do:

art, dance, gymnastic, karate...

The only think she wanted was to be a girl scout again,

so I made it happen,

and when I say I, I mean it, I am the co-leader of her troop,

there was no troop at her school.

While I am still new at this and it is still a work in progress,

she got exactly what she wanted: many girlfriends and fun activities.

 I thought it would be great fun to make her dolls

some brownie outfits so that she could have her own brownie troop!

Which meant 3 dolls: 3 outfits!

I went for a simple skirt and vest.

The skirt is a wrap around skirt made of brown twill, lined with quilting cotton

(it is reversible), the pattern is from You Can Make This, it is free and easy,

just basic sewing, the skirt can also fit some stuffed animals!

The vest is also made of the same brown twill,

I made up the pattern, based on her actual vest.
I will share latter the pattern and how I made the vests.
It is here.

I still need to find some small American flags for the vest,

but overall Miss C. enjoys her troop!

Happy Anniversary Girl Scouts,

and happy sewing!