Achoo!

Can you think of anything more prissy than embroidered handkerchiefs?

Yeah, me too. ;-)

--Mickey

Denim bag for an umbrella stroller

Stroller carry and gate check bag

Sure, you can buy a stroller gate-check bag for $15, or a carry bag for $20. I chose to repourpose a denim shirtdress for the occasion, giving the final product a button closure, pintuck and pocket detailing, shoulder and piggyback straps to attach onto another pack with a carabeaner or short length of rope.

Trek on down to your nearest resale shop, I found this at Goodwill for about $5, or if you are one of the many women with one in their closet, simply dig it out. The dress this project uses is a size medium, but a large would solve some of my difficulties related to the size.

Measure your stroller at the widest point, this stroller is widest where the wheels fold near the handle, and is about 26" circumference at this point. The length is 42". The bag shall have a square bottom 7" by 7", and an overall length of 44". It is good practice to measure and pin a strip of muslin the circumference of the finished piece and pass the stroller though, ensuring the bag will fit. When in doubt, measure twice before cutting and round up - removing material is far easier than adding.

This dress has some nice details on the front (pintuck, pockets, and a row of buttons that will serve as the bag fasteners) which will be kept for the bag. Therefore, the front will supply 16 inches and the back will supply 12 inches of the final exterior. Your dress may differ, or you may choose to omit some of the details.



Carefully remove any seams or darts that are in the fabric and either rip or cut out seams that must be separated. Measure out front and back and cut the pieces for the long sides of the tube.

This is where the medium size encountered the first problem, the sleeves were not large enough to cut the end squares, so those had to be removed from the back shoulder area. This removed several inches from the length and the sleeve ended up being attached to help create the top, with the curved portion matching up with the neckline and the straight edge along the rear to make up for the missing length.

The loops are all sewn tubes of denim, about 4 inches cut width, a 1/4" seam, resulting in a loop about 1.5" wide after turning and pressing. The piggyback loops are essentially big belt loops, while the shoulder strap is long enough to slip an arm through for carrying. For ease of design, some of the loops are stitched from the long shoulder strap.

The bottom of the bag is a 8" square, leaving half inch seam allowances on all sides, for a 7" finished size. This is plenty of room for the bottom wheels, and could easily have extra storage room.

The top is made from one of the sleeves, attached to the neckline after remsving the collar. The sleeve is then attached along the armholes in front, and the flat part of the sleeve is carried over and topstitched to the back panel, just above the shoulder loop. This creates a y-shaped seam in the upper part.

Before stitching, pin the seams together and double check the fit periodically. Ripping out seams is time-consuming and rather annoying. Most of the seams have been serged (pine-leaf stitch on the sewing machine, and trimmed to 1/4" seam. Any topstitching was created in gold thread to compliment the jeans. Where possible, topstitching follows an existing line on the jeans.

The final touch is a snap to hold the shoulder strap to the bag while not in use. This will help keep the strap from snagging on things as it is loaded into the aircraft.

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Hat and mitten bag

Anyone with children in school knows that hats and mittens often return home soaking wet, or not at all. After finding a wet mitten had been stored in a coat sleeve, I devised this bag for the kiddo to store them in.

The main bag is 11" x 28" of nylon mesh, folded over to make a 10" x 12" finished size. Handles are 3"x 14" strips of cloth, seam allowance pressed in, and folded in half.

Hanging loop is a 1" x 3" strip of cloth, or a scrap of bias tape, sewn closed.

Top of the bag are 3" x 11" cloth strips (four total), with seam allowance pressed in, mesh and handles sandwiched inside, and snaps to shut the bag installed. One side of the bag boasts the child's name, embroidered on the top strip prior to assembly.

The purpose of this is a bag to put wet things in that can go right into the dryer, or be hung up easily; also as a designated location for hats and mitts that tend to go floating off when not in use. The two snaps keep everything inside without drawstrings, which can be a strangulation hazard.

Full pattern and assembly instructions to follow, as well as some variations for laundry bags. With the addition of a zipper, this would make a nice sock bag for laundry day.

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Go Diego!

I needed another gift for a small child. This one is a Diego patch that I've sewn onto a backpack. The image is from a storybook or coloring book or something (I forget), scanned into the computer and digitized using Embird Studio. Pretty straight forward process, but I'm still working the kinks out of it. Not bad for a first article, though.

Diego is embroidered onto black felt with tear away stablizer above and below the felt (I removed the top piece prior to the final outline stitching. The design is 21 colors, I think (or 21 thread changes), and way too many jumps and cuts in the black - that must be improved. Finished product is about 2" x 3", keeping it small hides errors in digitizing.

Toy potholders

What small child doesn't need toy potholders for their play kitchen? Ok, probably most of them, but these turned out cute anyhow, and it's a good refresher to me for how to correctly apply bias binding.

Sewing for xmas gifts

Today's installment of Christmas presents includes tea towels. This is very easy with the proper software and an embroidery machine. The child's hand prints are converted to embroidery applique images and then transferred to a towel by the machine. In this sample run, I should have chosen better colors, the year sort of blends into the background too much. Include the child's name on the towel, and you'll have a great gift for grandparents. A layer of tear-away stabilizer I hope will help keep the hand print appliques looking nice after the wash.



For the new babies, or not-so-new babies on your list, a taggie blanket from loops of old ribbon (or ribbon scraps, check the remnants section, you only need a couple inches of any one) and about 1 square foot of fabric for each side, and I threw a layer of batting in between to give it some heft. Pin the ribbons to the right side of the front fabric, the back fabric (right side together with the front/ribbons), and the batting on the wrong side. Stitch everything around, tacking in extra at the ribbons where they'll be tugged, and leave an opening about 1.5 inches wide to turn the project. Turn it out, finish it off, and you have a custom gift in less than half an hour. Make it extra special with the child's name in big block letters, or a cute image. I make most of these with old flannel shirts for one side and curtain material or juvenile clothing material for the other. Sometimes I find a remnant of something especially silky or whatever, as long as it's machine washable, I'll put it on.

Finally, more purses.... same pattern. And I beaded some key rings with the keys and alphabet beads with the names on them.

Cool shades

The latest creation from the embroidery project...sunglasses

I had to edit the pattern from Molly Mine so that the lens material is sandwiched between the front and back halves of the frame. This enabled me to use a stiffer material for the lenses. Since I know my kids will want to use these as real sunglasses, I asked around the local eye doctors and found a supplier for post-mydriatic spectacles (temporary sunglasses given to patients after dialation of the pupils). The lenses are cut from that material, and are completely safe to use as actual sunglasses. Craft foam gives these glasses some shape and stiffness, and I tried to use a variety of colors and patterns for the fabric.

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Still more toys

I've finished a blue purse and a red purse, and I'm working on a bunch of money.

Pennies and Quarters....

Still working on the toys, but now I've invested in digitizing software. The first creations with the new software are pennies and quarters, simple designs with the denomination on the reverse and the appropriate bust on the obverse.

The penny needs some work - the color for Lincoln looks much better on the patterned fabric than the more golden color I chose for the 1.

Mirror, mirror, in my hand....

Mirrors! Yet more work on the xmas presents... Again, this is the Molly Mine purse pattern, with various colors of cotton fabric and foam core to give it stability. The mirror material is adhesive-backed vinyl from Specialty-graphics, who sells it by the foot ($2 per foot for 15" width), and shipped it out really fast (arrived within 3 days for standard postal shipping). This is a poor scan, since you cannot actually tell the mirrors reflect nicely. The flexible material does create some distortion, but the overall effect is pretty spectactular considering the price of materials.

More photos of toys

Some toys....

Along with the play money from Molly Mine, I also purchased a purse pattern and roadsigns. I'm going to be making presents for some children I know (so if you know one of these children, please don't give away the secret)

Some edits to the purse design were necessary - first and foremost the design files are meant for one single purse to be constructed at a time. This isn't very practical when I have a large number (8? 10?) on my 'to do' list. So I used Embird to edit the files - merging several copies onto the same hooping. In addition, some files were stitch-edited such that colors and outlines were done in an order that makes the higher volume easier (join multiple instances of the same color, run all applique stitches together, etc). I'm still working out the kinks, but it's much faster than one-off.

Some more play money - Curious George

Spent some time making more play money, this time with Curious George as our featured portrait. It's turning out rather nicely.



















For the interested parties, this is an embroidery pattern purchased from Molly Mine, and can be found here: http:\\www.mollymine.com

Making Money

So I've decided that children destroy play money far too quickly. To combat this problem, money made of fabric with an embroidered motif should withstand the rigors of childhood.

Back after a hiatus...

This blog hasn't been updated in close to 2.5 years... yeah, I know...

I just got a new toy, a janome 10001 embroidery machine (thank you Craigslist), and I'm starting a whole new set of sewing tasks - toys and stuff for young children. I'll post about it here as I get things accomplished.

Kid's room - completed

I've finished off the curtains - after a week or two of time to stretch, they could be hemmed.


Extra fabric was used to make the crib dust ruffle. The pattern is 5 rectangles - a 'base' that will be hidden under the mattress with a finished size of 52" x 26.5", two short sides finished size of 56" x 32" (double fullness pleated, double thick), two long sides finished size of 112" x 32" (double fullness pleated, double thick). By doubling up the ruffles, they hang nicely and can be reversed should the 'outside' get dirty.

I should add that the finished ruffle hangs about 15" down from the mattress platform.

Props to the sister-in-law, who made the crib sheet.

There's still tons left (maybe 14 yards?) so perhaps some floor cushions, laundry bag, slipcovers, liner for a swing/car seat/stroller, cover for a boppy pillow.... lots of ideas, not much motivation. :-)

--Mickey

Kid's Room Windows

Here's the curtains (nearly finished) for the kid's room. The pattern is 'girl' but not too girly.



Fabric is from Mike's Fabrics "Circles - Spring" (where it was cheaper to order the half bolt than to order 13 yards elsewhere) It did shrink nearly 2 inches per foot of length, so don't forget to pre-shrink your fabric people! Hems are not complete, as I want the fabric to hang and stretch if it's going to. Since this is a child's room, I've substituted very large stainless steel washers for traditional lead pennyweights. Those will be tacked onto the bottom hem once it is complete.

Pleats were made using Goblet Pleater tape from Rufflette.

With all the extra fabric, I may do up some additional nursery decor - Crib dust ruffle, laundry bag, chair slipcover for a glider, etc. Then again, I might just sleep instead.

Living Room Windows

I've finished the living room valence and started work on the drapey-thing. You can see the prelims here, but I'm not sure I like the result. I may take down the green sash and tack it to the back of the valence, then use some beaded cording to tie it back and up into swags. The far left is going to be cut short, but final length is undecided at this moment.

(the blue chair was a hand-me-down, so it isn't going to match until I get a slipcover made or reupholster it)

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