Princess Zipper Pouch

Here is a Princess Zipper Pouch I made for a dear friends daughter.  She is totally into princesses and everything pink & purple.  This fabric actually shimmers so I thought it was perfect for her. 

 

I did the lining in white and lavender dots and I think it compliments the bag nicely.

 

I especially love the princess charm.  I loaded up on some fabulous charms last month when I went to my hometown.  I found two stores with every charm under the sun and went bananas, you'll be seeing them for months because I literally got about 100 different kinds.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monogrammed & Appliqued Hand Towel

Good Morning!  It's Monday and it's one more week before school starts....  Micaela can hardly wait for Friday when we go to "Meet the Teacher" at her school.

I got some sewing done over the weekend despite the two birthday parties and alot of back to school shopping.  One of the items I finished which had been on my table for too long was this hand towel.  My friend Kristi recently moved into a new house and she purchased these towels and fabric for me to make for her daughter's bathroom forever ago and I finally got to them this weekend. 

The buttery yellow towels and vintage rose fabric match her bathroom perfectly!   I am so pleased with how they turned out.   I use this font quite a bit because it stitches out so beautifully.

Hope you have a great week, thanks for stopping by!

Monkey Beach Towel

It was a busy weekend with two birthday parties in opposite DFW metroplex counties... one in Denton and another in Tarrant. 

The first party was in Bedford for my cousin's baby girl Mia who just turned one.  So hard to believe this baby is one and walking-running all over the place.  Little Mia is crazy about monkeys and by total chance I found the perfect beach towel to embroider for her.

This is a Jelly Beans beach towel from Kohl's.  Here is a scan of the tag so you can see what the whole towel looks like.




I debated about where to add the embroidery, I think it turned out pretty cute in purple on the leaf (luckily Mia is a short name and it fit just right).  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Flip Flop Beach Towel

I am back from a week in California.  I arrived on Friday night and quickly had to start sewing because we had a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. 

We had a dry spell of birthday parties the last month or two but we are back in full swing with 3 parties the next two weekends.

Here is a purchased beach towel with a birthday girl's name embroidered on it.  This is one of my favorite fonts for towels...

Love this flip flop beach towel design! {wish I had ironed the towel before taking the picture}.

 Hope you are staying cool in this summer heat, thanks for stopping by.

Micaela sews again

This weekend we were at the fabric store and Micaela asked to buy fabric to make a dress.  After much discussion, we settled on some smocked fabric that could easily become a dress.
Here she is sewing the single straight seam along the back.

Here she is during her fitting...  She wanted the dress to be strapless.  I am a mean Mom and said no...lol. 

Here she is ironing the straps--- remember she wanted strapless.  Not happy, but is thrilled to get the opportunity to iron.   

The finished dress. After much discussion, settled on v straps that attached to the dress in the back (she did not want them to tie). Had to bribe her to add ric rak. Embellished with yo yo and button (nuts about yo yos these days).

She looks too grown up, what are we going to do!!!  Nine dollars on fabric, very well spent!

Towel Wrap

Micaela gets invited to a couple of birthday parties a month and I always looking new ideas for gifts. Since I am beginning my third year of embroidering just about every gift we give, quite a few of her friends have received the "standard" beach towel and blanket. The other day I stumbled across a tutorial for making bath wraps... bingo-- our 2012 girl gift! I thought this would be handy at home and for the pool during the summer.

So here it is! A towel wrap! I suspect I will be doing a bunch of these this year. The first one was her friend Carly. I added a heart peace sign to make it a little more girly since all the girls are heavy into peace signs & hearts these days. She loved it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinkalicious!

Pinkalicious, The Musical was in town a couple of weeks ago and Micaela and I went to see it with another Mother & Daughter 'couple'. This was Micaela's FIRST time at the Eisemann Center in Richardson and she loved it.

We debated about what to wear and in the end chose a dress I purchased for her 3 years ago. I've patiently been waiting for her to grow into the dress and the day finally came. I was so glad this dress was PINK and not another color...lol. I have so many outfits I have bought way in advance of her being able to wear, I am glad the timing on this one worked out perfectly! Thanks for stopping by.

Mini Sewing Machine Cover

Micaela has a tiny battery operated sewing machine that my Mom got her this summer, she loves it! She's been 'requesting' (nagging) that her machine does not have a cover like all of mine. I've been on the search for the perfect fabric for her since she's not fond of my red, black & yellow color scheme and recently while at Quilt Asylum I found some adorable "sewing theme" fabric called SEW by the Henley Studio. I knew she would love it because it's got PINK, her favorite color.

After much deliberation, we picked out a group of fabrics, ribbon and trim and went to work. After about an hour she was konked out on the day bed and I kept working until it was done. This is what we came up with! I think it turned out super cute. Sadly, I know she is going to outgrow this machine and we'll have to make another one to fit her next one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Adoption Day

We have a new member of the family, meet Oreo- our new dog. We adopted him from our SPCA center over Thanksgiving and Micaela is "over the moon" excited. Oreo is an early Christmas present from my parents. He's a daschund, my family's favorite breed! Thanks for stopping by!

Soccer Party

Our soccer season is over, we have our Saturday's back! We had a pizza party party to celebrate. Here's our sweets table... nothing really significant to write about except I wanted to share how I put the letters on the wall. I cut these out of felt sheets just like I did the ones on the blanket a few days ago. I 'temporary' adhered them to the wall using fabric basting spray. It was fast, easy and did not leave any residue on the wall. Thanks for stopping by!

Soccer Blanket

Our daughter plays soccer and during the last few games it was really chilly. I thought it would be fun to make an extra wide blanket in the team colors with the team name on it so when the girls sit on the sidelines they can keep warm.

I bought 3 yards of fleece 60 inches wide and trimmed it down to 45 inches. I took black felt I purchased by the yard and drew on letters freehand with chalk. I cut the letters out, used some temporary basting spray adhesive to place them on the blanket and then stitched around each letter. It was a little challenging manuevering all the fabric in the machine but I think it turned out cute and most of all the girls loved it! Go Team!

Pumpkin Barrettes

Autumn is finally here. The temperatures in the DFW area are finally comfortable. To kick off the first day of fall, here are some new pumpkin barrettes I embroidered. I made these for my daughter and some of her friends, aren't they adorable! These are available in my Etsy store.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pennant Banner

Here's a simple pennant banner I made for a dear friend's daughter's birthday party. Katie turned five and had a princess party.
Hope you are staying cool this summer!

Girl Scout Cookie Bag

Last month I came across some Girl Scout fabric by Robert Kaufman Fabrics and just had to buy some to make Micaela "something". Micaela became a Girl Scout this past fall and when I bought the fabric cookie selling season was about to begin.

After much thought (and deliberation), I decided to make her a bag so that when she went out to make "deliveries", she would be carrying the cookies in something cute. My first thought was a tablecloth for when the troop does sales in front of stores but at $10 a yard, I decided a bag would be much better use of the fabric.
So here is the bag... Ta Da!!!! I pretty much made it freehand without a pattern (don't recommend that).

First, I added fusible fleece to the back of the fabric and machine quilted horizontal lines, I wish I could say they are straight but you can certainly 'see' that they are NOT....lol. I had to embroider it 'somewhere' and since embroidery wouldn't really show up on such a busy pattern I decided to applique a square then do an appliqued M and name on top. The square is from GGDesigns in Australia, the M is a font from Planet Applique and the font on the name is by AKDesigns.

I made the bag gussetted by adding a brown gingham coordinating fabric to allow enough space to carry 7-8 boxes standing up.

I lined the bag in the same green gingham from the applique square and added velcro for easy closing and opening. I made the strap long and wide so it would be comfortable across the chest. I used the embroidery function on my new Janome machine to add a little personalization. Hopefully Micaela will stay in Girl Scouts for a long time and she can use this bag for delivering cookies many years to come. Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou

Soccer Bag

Made this bag for our daughter to carry her soccer stuff. Her team colors are hot pink and black. I pieced together the quilt squares. This is my first bag ever and I am happy with the results. I guess it is missing a little emboirdery....

Moving on to Hair Stuff...

Since there are only so many shirts, towels, bags and blankets I can make for our daughter, I have started to explore other 'embroidering' opportunities. I've been purchasing hair stitch designs from my favorite designer in Australia for a while, but had not taken the time to try them out. Well, I am hooked!

These are so fun, easy, and most of all FAST. The best thing is that I can make a bunch in one hoop. Here is my first attempt at a Valentine design.

There are many designs and you can attach them to fabric covered barrettes. The possibilities are truly endless.


Miss M loved it and now she wants one to match every outfit! Now, I have plenty to do! Thanks for stopping by.

Daisy Scouts

Micaela is now a Daisy Scout, we are excited. I think I am more excited than she is. When I was little my Mom did not let me join Girl Scouts because she just didn't understand the concept, the language etc... I've been looking forward to this for a long time because part of my job involves presenting to Daisies, Brownies and Girl Scouts. Just listening to the girls recite their pledge brings tears to my eyes-- I am such a sap!

So anyway, Micaela just joined and I volunteered to embroider the girls names on the tunics.

Mother & Daughter Halloween Party

During my single days I used to host a Halloween Party for girlfriends. After I got married and had a baby it was difficult to continue the tradition. After much thought and consideration (plus some encouragement from my friend Virginia) we decided to bring the tradition back with a twist by making make it a Mother Daughter Party. Here are some of the highlights!

The backyard was somewhat decorated already. The morning of the party we added tables and chairs to the back yard. Here's what it looked like before everyone arrived


Here's what it looked like as everyone was arriving. Needless to say the weather was picture perfect and everyone enjoyed the back yard. I found out 35 people very comfortable fit in our back yard.
Here's a picture of a grandma witch and aunt witch.

Here's a picture of more cute mothers and daughters.

Some of my girlfriends brought treats to share... My friend Jennifer made these super cute monster squares, the cake part was pumpkin and chocolate chips, they were really yummy.

These are some of the treats on the kitchen bar. I forgot to take a picture of the food table!

Here is the picture of the super gorgeous cake my friend & co host Virginia purchased. It was giant, we could have fed another 35 people. She ordered it from The Cake Stand in historical downtown McKinney, it was incredibley delicious.

Here's a cute picture of a few of the girls having a good time on the swing set!

All in all the party was a huge success, could those little girls look any happier? We definitely will have another party next year! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

B & B for Ana Victoria

Made this set for my friend Irma's "great" neice. Ana Victoria is schedule to arrive on December 23rd. You know this new Mom of soon to be 3 is planning ahead, we didn't have our baby name picked out that early much less have personalized items ready for her.I love this brown and pink dot fabric! Hope you have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Set for Sweet Ginger

This is a set for my California Cousin's new baby girl Ginger. Isn't that an adorable name for a Hollywood girl? I really love this rosebud design.

I've been meaning to mail this for a while and kept holding off because I needed a card. So tonight I was trying to whip up a card really quick and decided to try to embroider a monogram right on the cardstock. I think it turned out pretty cute.Thanks for stopping by! Buenas Noches!