I’m sure by now everyone has seen Amy’s amazing Be Joyful embroidery. I am so inspired by her attention to detail and amazing skill with a needle and thread.  Amy kindly sent me a copy of her pattern and I was/am dying to stitch it up, but to be honest I am a bit intimidated by Amy’s amazing work…afraid mine will fall flat. So, I decided I wanted to do a “trial run” before stitching the real thing.

Enter a heart to heart and joke between my husband and I.  We were having a talk about some parenting frustrations we were having.  We decided to take a new approach to the problem, I read the following quote to my husband- “Life by the inch is a cinch, life by the yard is hard”.  We both liked it and thought it would be a perfect approach to our problem. My husbands response was that we needed to have it displayed somewhere we would see it often.  I jokingly said that I would embroider it on a pillow- he took me seriously!!

So, I set about creating a pattern, and decided that really it was a silly phrase (good sentiment, but wrong for a pillow).  I found another quote I liked that also reminded us of the same sentiment.

“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved”-Thomas S. Monson

I decided to stitch it up and let this pillow be my trial run for Amy’s pattern.  I am really tickled with how it turned out- and my husband of few words (and fewer compliments) has commented multiple times about how impressed he is!

I was absolutely inspired by Amy’s work, I just loved her flowers!  Here is my pattern (free download) in case anyone else wants a trial run before staring Amy’s gorgeous Be Joyful pattern.  The pattern shows only the green vine and words, I made the flowers up as I went along.  I really liked the blackeyed susan at the top and wish I had done a few more.

This is what happens when you let an almost seven year old pick out the pattern, fabric and trim for her Christmas dress.

It begins to look more  like something meant for a stage production of “King Lear” than for a Christmas church service.  BUT, she loves it; so I guess its all good.

(she wouldn’t smile, she’s was upset that I made her step away from an episode of Curious George!)

So Sunday evening I decided that with family coming for Christmas my daughter needed a special dress to wear.  The budget being as tight as it is, I thought I would make her a dress…thinking if I went with a simple dress I could get fabric for about $10 (with coupons) and all would be well.  Monday morning we headed out to look for fabric….but moaned and moaned over the fact that I would spend the rest of the day sewing the dress and how I didn’t want to.  So, we took a detour to Goodwill in search of a used x-mas dress.  No go.  On the way to the fabric store I got a call from Jaylee, I lamented to her about how I couldn’t find a dress and was going to have to make one.  She started laughing and told me that I was the only person that she knew that would determine if it couldn’t be found at Goodwill, that it must be handmade…as if I had no other options.  I saw her point and laughed at myself.  BUT, I was sure I could get the fabric for less than I could buy a dress at Old Navy (or this $40 one from the Gap).  Well, turns out this lovely Shakespearean dress cost about $28 to make a about 5 hours of my time.  NEXT YEAR I AM BUYING A DRESS, NEW!

To add insult to injury this pattern (Simplicity 2269) was a PAIN to sew.  It looked so simple.  I’ve been sewing for 20+years, but this pattern took the cake!  The yoke for the neck…the pattern pieces were a total nightmare to pin into place and get the fabric to lay flat (from the upper gathers).  The pieces also didn’t quite fit, I ended up cutting off about 2″ from the back neck yoke on either side, just to make it fit.  On a positive note, I do like the bubble sleeves and they were easy peasy to make.  Has anyone else tried this pattern, I would love to hear your review?

It’s teacher appreciation week at school, each day has a theme.  Today’s theme was flowers, so we picked these big beauties from the back yard and wrapped them up nice.

It seems more than overdue to express my appreciation to all you great people for sticking with me.  Blogging has certainly taken a backseat since babers was born.  It almost seems silly to call this a “crafty blog” anymore…but here is an Art Deco Butterfly embroidery pattern I designed a few years back.

You can download the full pdf here.  Would LOVE to see pics if anyone gets it stitched up.

OK, before I get to the meat of this post, here are some linky loves that I must pass along.  Tasha, of A Little Sweetness is giving away some of her personally designed fabric.  It is SO CUTE, and if you don’t win, you can always pick some up in her shop!  I think the Little Red Riding Hood on white is my favorite!

Also, if any of you are a Flea Market Fancy fans like myself (I still have a few pieces I’m hoarding!), go sign this petition to get Free Spirit to reprint the line (oh to dream!), and while you are there enter to win this selection of 29 FMF fat quarters and some great books.  If you win, will you share a  FQ with me?

Yesterday my daughter was invited to a birthday party of a girl from her preschool class.  I always have a hard time buying gifts for families/girls I don’t know very well.  Not everyone appreciates the homemade, and I don’t want to waste my efforts if they won’t be appreciated.  Soooo, off to the big box store we went for some plastic Princess crap.

After getting it all wrapped up I felt guilty for A. Shopping at Target & B. Not making something…then I remembered all of the great felt I bought from the HB booth at Blissfest (you can also buy it online) and whipped up a little flower.  Not only does it look great as part of the wrapping, but it’s a barrette for the little girls hair!

First, I strongly recommend that you use wool, or wool blend felt for this project.  The cheap craft felt you can get at most craft stores will pill and stretch and not give you the lasting look you are going to want.  Here is what you’ll need:

2 colors of felt
1 piece of green felt
1 metal snap barrette (or a pony tail holder)
1 coordinating button
thread/needle/scissors
any other trims that appeal to you

Here is the pdf with the pattern pieces I free handed for the above barrette.  Cut all your pieces out, for the front circle, I folded it in half and cut little triangles out of it to give it the fringed look.

Layer the pieces as you’d like them to be, place the button on the top and stitch through all the layers.  For the back, take the circle and cut 2 small slits in the back about an inch apart in the center, thread the pony tail holder through.

Attach the circle to the entire flower, stitching through all but the top layer.  It should look like this when you’re done.

To do a barrette back, you can do it 2 ways.

You can measure your clip and cut out a piece of felt the length of your barrette, be sure to cut a small slit in it for the metal arm to go through.  Then sew this to the back of your flower, sewing through all but the top layer.

Using the circle pattern provided for the back, you can cut a small slit for the barrette arm and then stitch the whole circle to the flower.  The barrette side goes against the flower, the metal arm is what you should see when your barrette is finished.

I made this one to match one of my daughters shirts!  Be creative, try different shapes, add embroidery, seed beads, ribbon anything that appeals to you!

AND, because you made it through this whole LONG post, I made a holiday poinsettia barrette to give away.  Just leave me a comment telling me you’d like to win, I’ll pick a winner on Monday Nov 29th.

I have nothing to blog about, unless you want to hear me whine about sleeping on the couch because it is the only place i can get comfortable, or about how I am still fighting a cold, or how I’m tired all the time… I figure the masses don’t want to read about that, so I give you a free fall embroidery pattern.

You can download the full sized .pdf HERE.  I based the pattern off the tree pillow I made last fall that I gave to my sister in law.  Send me pictures if you stitch it- or applique it, I’d love to see it!!

Ages ago I bookmarked this Little Boys Tie tutorial over at Purl Soho, yesterday I finally got a chance to try it!

Getting the above boy dressed for church is a REAL challenge.  I asked him yesterday if he would like me to make him a new tie and he happily agreed and said (in an excited voice) that he could wear it to church.  So, anything that got my son excited about getting dressed for church- I am all over it!

We went to the fabric store and I let him pick whatever fabric he wanted- he chose this great little turtle print!  The tutorial was very easy to follow (and was done almost exclusively by hand- for those of you without machines!!).  My fabric was 45″ not 54″, so I bought a yard and a half and just cut out 2- 27″ squares to work with.  I was worried about sizing though, I wasn’t sure what they meant by “little boy”…Well, it fits my 50″ tall son perfectly!

I so enjoyed using this pattern that I started racking my brain about who I knew that also had a son that I could make a tie for!  The tie width would be perfect for 4yo-10yo, I would only adjust the length of the tie for the different age ranges.

My aunt let me dig through her stash of old embroidery patterns and this was one of the patterns I loved enough to scan.  I just had to share it- it was not in an envelope and was unmarked so I don’t know who the maker is.

We’re heading to the beach today, but not before we visit the 1 1/2 acres of fabric at Fabric Depot!!!

Back in April I hit an estate sale where I snagged an old Woman’s Day and Better Homes & Gardens magazine for .25 each.  I’ve poured over them both and am glad to have them in my collection.  I’ll be sharing some of the BH&G pastel 50′s love soon.  Today I thought I’d share some vintage Finnish Embroidery designs…  Click on the image to see them larger.

Have a great weekend!

thank you for the advice on the dress…I *think* I’m going to do the V in the back and lower the neck just a bit in the front, because I too can’t stand a really high neck.  I’m planning on making it this week, getting it ready for Easter Sunday.

This weekend I made myself a new spring skirt using a print from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern.

I used New Look pattern 6843, and would not recommend it.  I bought the pattern years ago-back in college- and used it successfully once before.  Because it is such an old pattern, it is designed to be high waisted, me, I’m a big fan of anything low rise.  I cut the pattern a bit bigger so that I could wear it lower, which caused problem with the darts, and then it didn’t hang right.  I tried a new way (rather than the successful way I’ve been doing it for years!) to stitch the zipper…which caused some puckers.  Then the center back seam created a pleat.  There was much time spent hunched over with a seam ripper in my hand.  I finally got it wearable, however the waist is still higher than I would like.

Anyone want to recommend a skirt pattern- something simple that can be dressed up or down?  I think I need one more new skirt.

p.s. the sewing room always looks like that when I’m in the middle of a project.  A total mess.

I named this bag after my grandmother, whose birthday is next week!!

Pattern will be avaliable in the shop around april-ish.  However, you can make it with me in April at Blissful Living- I’ll let you know when we pick a date.  My favorite detail of the purse?  The little ruffle on the sides!  Inside features one large pocket with 2 compartments closes with a magnetic clasp.

Sewing with Heather’s fabric is such a treat!  The patterns on the fabric are just so fun and vibrant, I just enjoyed the entire process of creating this bag!