Birdy Messenger Bag - Restyled

I love canvas bags. This was a plain one waiting for something special. A beautiful tree stamp and two birds cut from a wool skirt. A small one on the front and his larger cousin adorns the back...both with pearl eyes. This is one of my favorite restyles so far!

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Peace Man!

 So, one of my favorite people in all the world is really into peace signs. Always has been and I hope she always will be. I got the inspiration for this project from all of the embroidery hoop art I've seen on Pinterest and in the Stampington magazines. It was my first time spraying paint through lace but I'm for sure going to use the technique again.

And, of course, no project is complete without sewing machine doodles!

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Glue Resist - Coloring with Stitch

Yay! As promised, here are the final photos of the glue resist bag (scroll down to see the post from a couple weeks ago). I L-O-V-E free form stitching. It is so freeing to just dive in with no expectations of perfection. Messy, swirly fun!!!

I am addicted to doodle flowers so this was right on. I did find out pretty quickly that in order to stitch on painted fabric I had to lower the tension on my machine by quite a bit. It was down to between 2 and 3 for this. I also learned the hard way that you must REMEMBER to readjust the tension before you start another project!

I love blue flowers, probably because they aren't very common in nature. It made perfect sense to me to make the center of this flower blue. I did stick with traditional green for the stem. I can't wait to do more "drawing" on fabric with stitches! 

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Fabric Scrap Greeting Card

Having a very busy week. Thought I would revisit a fun project from a few months ago!

This is a fun, easy and FAST little project! I am a fabric hoarder and just can't bring myself to toss anything no matter how small. I started a box where I keep the little pieces so I can quickly sift through my collection for a project of this size. This idea came from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. Its another great example of finding something new to try and adding your own spin!

I started with a random sheet of paper, folded it in half and tore the outside edges - something about straight, perfect edges makes me crazy!

Next I grabbed some bright scraps from my stash and haphazardly laid them out to cover the front of the card.

Now the fun part! I love using my sewing machine to stitch on paper. I save old needles for this occasion because paper will dull a needle quickly and I want to get as much mileage out of my supplies as I can. Whenever I change my sewing machine needle I put the old one in a holder marked "used" so I always have some on hand for paper.



Keeping old needles for sewing paper is handy.



I chose white thread this time so it would blend with the inside of the card but any color is fine. I sewed from top to bottom and then zig-zagged by way back up and across the card, making sure all the fabric was secured. You want to make sure you don't sew over the fold.

I decided to decorate the front with a fabric flower and planned to use colored thread for doodling. Knowing the color would show up on the inside too I laid out the size of the flower and then placed the stamp to get a general idea if how they would fit.



My first sewing machine doodle! It was fun to do and I quickly realized does not have to be perfect to look cute!! I sewed around the flower I cut out and then swirled to the center.....then nervously turned the card over to see how it looked on the white side. I liked it. The sewing machine stamp showed up well over the thread too, just make sure to press firmly and evenly.

I used a metallic purple colored pencil to shade in the outside edge and blend in better with the colors on the front of the card. Looking back I would do more doodles and decoration on the inside but this was a quick project done between 5 and 6 am while the family slept, before hitting the shower for work. Not a bad start! It was fun and gave me a little creative fix to carry through the hectic day ahead!

Red and purple are one of my favorite color combos!

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