Handcrafted Christmas – Laptop case

My niece is on her rifle team at college, does well and positively loves it. This is a laptop padded case for her, although I added the strap so she could use it as a bag or hang it in her room to stuff with things. (She’s going for laptop bag). I’m not a gun toting kinda gal myself, but this image is one she adores; she also has it on a towel. It’s Embroidery Library’s Hunting Crest.

Stitching through multiple layers of padding and heavy duty stabilizer plus upholstery weight cotton was tough on my machine (see the bent needle above). The green trim isn’t on perfectly but I’m in the process of making some “raggedy flowers” for her to pin on the bag where the trim was not absolutely straight at the bottom edge. Simplicity pattern 4391 was a starting point.

Wishing you Peace and Joy

Everyone – Have a simply marvelous holiday season!

To my Christian friends, Merry Christmas, Nollaig Shona Daoibh!!

For those who follow the seasons, I hope you enjoyed your winter solstice, Meán Geimhridh -  a time to bring in greens so your overwintering sprites will enjoy your home, keep your yule log burning bright to honor the return of the sun and say hello to Brigid, patroness of artists and crafts people, so that she may light your inspiration in the coming year. Beannachtaí na Féile!

Handmade Christmas Victorian Santa Stockings

More Victorian – My sister’s town does a Dickens Christmas event (which I think must be so cool!). Used their “proper names” to go along with the times. I might try to make the exact same set for myself for next year – Love them!

Osnaburg (poor man’s linen, a sturdy 100% cotton) is the base, heavy duty cut away is the stabilizer, Sulky embroidery the threads. Stitching the fabric to stabilizer around the design before embroidering (on my machine it’s “fix”) is something I highly recommend.  You remove the basting stitch when it’s done. The designs are from Embroidery Library  (Victorian Santa and Victorian reindeer 1); the lettering for the name is from my machine (Husqvarna Viking).

Pieces were stocking front and back, cuff, lining front and back. (There are oodles of free stocking patterns on the web if you need one). An upholstery weight micro suede (faux suede) is the cuff with a light Christmas cotton the lining (I didn’t want anything that might show through the osnaburg, light color and light design deliberate for the lining).

Using both red and burgundy lets them tie together their new home color and their existing holiday reds. You’ll note I didn’t want a seam along the “front” stocking edge of the cuff, but used one long piece to wrap around.

Stitched the top inside edge of both the stocking (right sides together) and lining (right sides together), then stitched the cuff (right sides together) to the lining and the cuff to the stocking (right sides together).

Fold lengthwise with right sides together and stitch all the way around, leaving a gap large enough for your hand on one of the lining sides. You can see my gap on the calf back.

Pull the stocking through the gap to get it right side out. (Stitchers - are you admiring my collection of embroidery threads in their handy, closable (read dust proof) cases that I pick up on sale (or with coupon) at Joann you get a glimpse of in hte background?)

Then push the lining down into the stocking and allow the cuff to fold  a bit into the lining side as well.

I leave the heavy duty stabilizer in so they’ll hand nicely when empty. I also didn’t stitch the gap in the lining closed – it might be easier a few years from now to press them inside out. If these were for children, I would’ve stitched the gap closed. Next time I’d flare out the stitching for the cuff a tad.

Finger smooth and press the cuff, use an iron to smooth and lightly press the stocking now that it’s right side out. Wrap.

Hoping you’re all having a lovely holiday season! A free stocking pattern is here at Moda Bakeshop. This post is participating in Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou and Metamorphis Monday.

More Handcrafted Christmas – Felt Ornaments

If you can’t sprinkle in some cute at Christmas, when can you? The gingerbread folks are from Urban Threads and the Bear and Elf candy cane holders are from Embroidery Library.

As usual, I don’t exactly follow their instructions for making one at a time but search out a few shortcuts to do a sheet at once. You need to be careful with how you paste and color sort in 4D Embroidery – you can end up stitching out one at a time (arggh – thread changes). I “faked out” the program by inputting odd colors (like magenta) for the back stitch down while knowing “magenta” meant load up brown thread again. This way I could color sort so that all 6 candy cane holder tops stitched and stopped allowing me to take it off the machine and add the back felt, then have all six bottoms stitched on. With the gingerbread men, I’d stitched just the tops, cut them out, glued to felt backs with ribbon at head to hang and cut out again. Still faster than doing one at a time.

I always use Sulky embroidery threads  (40 weight) – I can get them on sale and haven’t had any problems. If you stitch them one at a time per instructions – the edge overlap stitching would be at the edge. Stitching in groups like this, I have the bit of felt on the outside edge.

 You can see the white cut away stabilizer in the sandwich of felt middle as I’d started using my white cutaway (need to get black cut away). I used a brown marker to go over the bits of white that poked through.

The bears went off without a hitch. You do need to be sure to get “skinny” candy canes as I had one box that was just a tad too big to fit through the buttonholes.

Back to creating gifts and baking ……  This post is participating in the following linky parties: Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage,

Handcrafted Christmas – Printed Linen Towels

It’s crunch time for crafters and bakers. Have my elf hat on and been busily working and creating these past few weeks – just haven’t written about it here. Packages must arrive and be opened before I can post about them. :-)  First up – decorated holiday towels. I love my embroidery, but some images can take as long as 6 to 8 hours to stitch out (egads), printing to fabric goes much faster. It’s not quite as durable in the long run – but for decorative items will last years (and if you’re wanting to print on a shirt for your child – well, one season with washing plus their growth isn’t bad).

1.    Grab some linen or linen blend fabric, preshrink.

2.   Hem for a towel. (See Loving Linen post for measurements, suppliers, complete details plus care of linen information).

3.   Sew a decorative stitch at hem.

4.   Select an image (web search for copyright free images or check out what folks are posting at Pinterest). I manipulate my images plus text in PowerPoint to place on an 8 ½ X 11 page as I work in PowerPoint a great deal. This particular set used the June Taylor prepared for printing fabric but I have used others.

5.   Print to prepared fabric sheet

6.   Fix image per directions (iron a lot, wet, iron some more).

    a.   Had one sheet run at the wet stage, they all bleed a bit. I iron and let sit overnight before the wet step now.

7.   Stitch your image to the towel.

8.   Create a Merry Christmas patch, fringe around patch and stitch patch to towel. Actually, I glued the patches on with Aleene’s Ok to Wash it Glue and I’m a tad worried as I’ve noticed a few items I glued with this came apart shortly after. Will stitch in the future.

9.   Wrap and send to a lucky gift recipient – isn’t this the cutest addition to a Victorian themed Christmas kitchen?

This post is participating in Sundays in My City. Most posters there are incredible photographers, it’s a fun Linky to visit. I’m also sharing at Rednesday, Today’s Creative Blog, Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios, Linda at Coastal Charm, Beyond the Picket Fence

Creating a few Masks

Having fun creating some masks lately. I’ll begin the post with the ‘finished’ versions so that those of you who don’t want the down and dirty of how to do them can skim the instructions. ‘Finished’ is in quotes as I may come back to them. One consideration is to do more of the Venetian thing and attach them to decorated pieces of dowel.

This is how the Dragon mask stitches out – they are beautiful “as is”. Each of these is an Embroidery Library design.  

I’m able to stitch out two of the half masks at once. Fitting them in the hoop and redoing colors to fit my whim is done on the embroidery program. I haven’t stitched out the mask on the left yet as I substituted that with the raven.

The machine does the work. With mine I have to stay close enough to change thread colors or hear if the stitching pace signals a problem such as the threads getting all knotted up (called nesting)  or thread breaking, running out of bobbin thread and such.

These were stitched with Sulky embroidery thread on black craft felt using two pieces of black stabilizer, Ripstitch # 15 from Allstitch.

The masks are pretty cool as is, but I was inspired by Niamh’s example at Urban Threads to do just a bit more (check out her steam punk mask tutorial). If I planned ahead, I would’ve shopped feathers first and then chosen my thread colors to match. Joann’s didn’t have a large selection of feathers and I was lucky to find a few within the mixed packet that would match my Dragon.

To match ring colors on the chain, I simply undid pieces of the larger chain as my rings. They’re stitched to the back of the mask with a dab of glue added for extra security. The feathers are glued with Aleene’s ‘Okay to wash it’ fabric glue. I created a sandwich gluing the feathers to a piece of black felt and then the feather plus felt combo to the back of the mask. This prevents the pokey end of the feathers from scratching your face or eye.

The small holes on either side of the mask for inserting elastic fit precisely over my glasses in the dragon mask so I can use about half inch pieces on each side. Don’t want to lose the masks themselves in too much decoration, so I’ve been reigning in the desire to add beading or other trims. Had been playing with red and black beading in addition to the chains on the bat mask, or complementary beading on one lower edge of the dragon mask, but nah. If I change my mind, I’ll post updated pics. If I attach them to dowels, I’ll glue a craft stick (think Popsicle stick) to the back of the mask for added strength.

Have one other Halloween themed embroidery project I need to finish up and post. For local folks, I don’t sell but Bandera does embroidery and would be happy to stitch up an Embroidery Library pattern for you.

So, how do you spend your Sundays? Check out Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City to see what other folks do on their day off in their neck of the woods. The majority of the folks there are fantastic photographers so it’s a beautiful stroll.

This post is participating in Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home, Frugal Friday at the
Shabby Nest, Fridays at Remodelaholic, Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Sundae Scoop at I Heart
Naptime, Show and Tell Saturdays at Be Different Act Normal, Fridays at Remodelaholic, Sunday
Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming, The Tablescaper, Gallery of Favorites at 21st C Housewife, and Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous linky parties.

Thanks to Alea of Premeditated Leftovers and April of The 21st Century Housewife for featuring this post on their weekend blog hop: Gallery of Favorites.

Primitive Macabre from Urban Threads

Urban Threads has some of my favorite designs – they call them quirky and offbeat, designs you’re not going to find on the mainstream sites. Designs are offered as a digital stock art (for paper crafters, mod podgers and more), hand embroidery designs or for machine embroidery. Their blog shares attention-grabbing examples of tattoos many followers have had inked from their art (in addition to projects and contests). I’d shared one of my all-time faves, their Queen of Hearts design, here.

Now, I am breaking a promise to myself to post some craft or topic other than machine embroidery; folks new to the blog may not realize that there are other items I blog about (just check out categories folks). After an extended break from machine embroidery I’m back and gung ho stitching up a few things the week.  

These images are from their primitive macabre line. My current plan is table runner. They’re stitched on the linen remnant I have from a different project. When setting out to embroider, you can always change the thread colors on your designs. I dragged out my Halloween runners and apron and chose thread colors to match.

Of course, the moment I step away my project overseer comes in to check out how things are going. Amazingly, the male cat never comes near my projects.

I really wish their color changes had let us choose to have ‘Pumpkin Man’s’ outer jacket, hat, face and pants in different colors (they’re all set to one). When I have the time, I might try and fuss with my software and see if I could put the color stops in the right place (you have to think in terms of one stitch at a time, a few stitches off and blech). As these are dense designs, I use a cutaway stabilizer. Mentioned before, starch the linen like crazy before hooping.

I do love these designs. From the ‘I should have thought this out better’ category I jumped right on taking the machine basting rectangle out of these for the photos. But now I want to put decorative stitching in a rectangle around them and I could have used the basted stitch as a perfect inner guide. Plan is to fringe up to the decorative stitching rectangle and then tack them to either a black or dark purple runner with a few other designs added in. Ah well, I’ll just have to get out the disappearing ink pen.

Our exceptional local fabric store, Country Cloth, has a few designated workshop spaces where you can simply bring in projects to work in a community environment. As the first embroidery machine I got was so temperamental and I’m so relieved to have one that works well now, I won’t travel with my machine. I’ll drag my cutting, stuffing, hand stitching or sewing with my old clunker to the classroom space. So, stocking up on a bunch of embroideries to attach to projects later isn’t a bad thing. If I can take nab few hours off work, I’ll grab my project bag and head down to Angels Camp.

For step-by-step instructions, visit Embroidery Library’s Tutorial on Linen.

This post is participating in Skip to MyLou Monday , Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios and Tuesday at Coastal Charm, Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design, Wednesday at SewMuch Ado, Tuesday at Tip Junkie, Wednesday at Someday Crafts,  Catch a Glimpse Thursdays, TransformationThursday, Today’s Creative Blog, SomewhatSimple Show and Tell Saturdays, Saturday at Funky Junk Interiors and Sew Cute Tuesday at the Creative Itch.

Ohhhhh, so pretty!

Been keeping a few craft projects rolling along in the background here. One is the pillow project for the guest room. Loving these Art Deco – y butterflies from Embroidery Library stitched out on linen. Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Circle

Chose deeper but matching colors (Sulky threads) to the quilt will add a bit of punch. Had already made the chenille green pillows as the daybed is large and in need of quite a few more pillows to look as inviting as I’d like. I’m determined to finish these as pillows although I like them so much, I’m a bit inclined to just frame them.

 Heirloom Butterfly and Floral Square

There are clear step by step tutorials for everything (just check out the left column) related to machine embroidery at Embroidery Library’s project page. Perfect hooping, placement and stabilizer guides are available as well as hints for embroidering on any type of material. For linen – wash the fabric first as you plan to later, then starch the heck out of your piece. A medium weight cutaway stabilizer is a good choice for the weight of linen I like to work with. To later need to wash an embroidered piece, iron it while damp from the back of the piece.

Now, to border and stitch these into  pillows. Then, as this is the only frou frou room in the house, on to a ruffled pillow or two and one with a nice big bow.

This post is participating in the parties linked below.