Thursday, December 27, 2007

Reno's Christmas 2007 Sweatshirt

I didn't make too many gifts this year, not for a lack of wanting to, but just lack of time and energy. But my mom bought this zip up hooded sweatshirt at Target for her friend Reno a couple weeks ago, and I had an idea to embroider his initials on it.


That night I got online and downloaded his initials from Embroidery Library out of the Ornate Alphabet collection. I first imported the 3 inch letters into my embroidery software and arranged them in a pleasing manner, then combined them into one file. I changed the colors to silver and green to go with the heather gray fabric. My mom helped me with the prep work (stabilizing and hooping the sweatshirt) and then we watched my Viking Designer SE (my dream machine) stitch out the R and the K. It turned out great. Here is a close up of the initials:


Reno's "initial" reaction was to laugh! What a strange response...lol but thats RENO! He did like it, and I think it made the plain sweatshirt much nicer.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

For Carmela

I just loved this sketch when I saw it on Splitcoast last week, but with Christmas and all I hadn't got a chance to make it. I had a great idea one morning this weekend as I lay in bed (contemplating whether to get up or not...lol) to make a pink and brown birthday card for my late brother's high school and beyond girlfriend (who is now married and has a baby boy). Greg died ten years ago, but we still keep in touch with Carmela because she meant so much to him. She's like a sister to me. Her birthday is on New Year's Eve, and I hope she likes the card.


I used the puffball on a stick stamp from the Heartfelt Thanks set by SU! and Happy Birthday from the Warmest Regards set. The colors are Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. I found some brown gingham ribbon and added some copper brads which are as close to brown as I could get. The circle punches I used are the 1 - 3/8 and 1 - 1/4 ones. I also used my Perfect Layers tool to get a 1/16 mat on the sentiment. Pretty sweet tool. Both the focal panel and sentiment are attached with SU dimensionals. Thanks for looking!

Sunday, December 09, 2007

My First Miranda Bag!


Well it took me a while only because I haven't felt like going in the sewing room for some time, but I finally finished my first Miranda bag!! It is much more involved than the Gracie bag (also by Lazy Girl Designs) but is still a simple to make bag. I used fabric from Moda's Fall Back in Time line by Sandy Gervais. I love how the striped fabric I used for the inside of the bag forms the faux binding at the top. I used the dark green vinyl handles by Exclusively You by Leisure Arts, which are a bit darker than I would like, but I think it still looks good.


Don't you just love all these cool pockets? So much organization in such a small package, although this bag turned out way larger than I expected. That is fine with me, the more room the better! This bag is super sturdy, because it uses heavy interfacing (I used Decor Bond) on both the bag and the lining. It made for some difficult turning of the bag, but once that was done, it was cake.

I love this design and will surely make another. But who knows when? I just have to find the time and pick out some new fabrics! There are so many new lines out now, and I am drooling over some of them!! Thanks for looking!