Wordless Wednesday #42~ No History Repeating Please

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Every year I pray not to have to go through another ice storm.

The first I experienced as a country girl and had wood heat and post weather was in the 40s.

The second experience I was a city girl with no heat and a heavy snow w/ 20° followed.

I'm still presently in the city girl situation.

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Purple Polka Dot Baby Dress

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Baby Shower Time! 

This is what I made to take to a baby shower yesterday.  It sure was nice the New Mother had a Pinterest page that showed the style she wanted for her little one.  She specifically pinned some shoes which I didn't make, but I came close.  

This is part of the fabric my good friend sent me a couple of months ago.  I know she thought I'd use the fabric for "Quilts for Orphans," but I just can't help using some of this beautiful fabric (these are Moda) for some special projects. 

I used McCall's Pattern 8812 size 0-3 months.

 I see this pattern is no longer available, however there is a similar pattern.

This pattern never goes out of style as I made it for my babies/toddlers 3 decades ago.

Here are two other patterns you can download but come in larger sizes:

Snazzle Craft - 18-24 months

I Kat Bag - 2yr

Only the dress is reversible.

The blue side was turned under and top stitched.  Luckily came out perfectly on the purple side.

A mistake called for some patch work which turned out to be a creative serendipity event.

Fortunate to have a serger to help create a more professional purchased look.

You can download the shoe pattern by Aimee Larsen.  No elastic needed for this shoe.

Did you notice the buttons on each side of the dress?

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Wordless Wednesday #41~ Frozen in Time

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 Thank goodness we had a very light coating of ice last week.

I've been through 2 ice storms that lasted a week without electricity.

Miserable stress of keeping the pipes from freezing with no heat.

Not fun.

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Purse Skirt Possibilities- Endless

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Sewing Machine Gifts 2012- A Series

MORE Purse Skirts!

When you open your mind to the possibility of using ANY fabric and not just from the fabric store, then you won't stop.  Also, if you have an embroidery machine and you have found all the free stuff at the Sew Forum, & Embroidery RN then you'll have an endless number of skirt purses.  

Here are the rest of the purse skirts I created for Christmas gifts. Hope this gets your brainstorm going.  enJOY!

From upholstery/curtain fabric.

A loose weave fabric doesn't require facing for these skirts.

The "Tinker Toy" embroidery font can be found free @

Embroidery RN. 

 Made 2 skirts out of sweater sleeves leftover from last year's Sweater Pillow projects.

 

 Embroidery RN also has a College Applique font. 

 I really liked the "Amaze Font" found over on the Sew Forum.  It stitches out very nicely without any touch up and of course its FREE!

And finally, a Christmas gift to myself.  While visiting my Mother at Christmas, I found a pair of slacks she said she couldn't wear any more.  They were made of corduroy which fit the bill for my need of a winter purse skirt.

 This font is called "Feel Font" and is also found free @ the Sew Forum.

The good thing about putting the monogram on a pocket is if there is a mistake, you've haven't used a lot of fabric, plus you have an extra pocket!

Pockets?  That gives me even more ideas.  How about you?
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If you want to make some of these purse skirts, please visit my post @

Free Skirt Purse Pattern w/ Tutorial

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A DIY Door Draft Blocker

When I moved to this house, I had to remove the nasty carpet upstairs and replaced it with laminate.  That made a BIG space between the bottom of the floor and the bottom of the door of rooms that aren't always heated.  Result: Cold air blasting from under the doors.

The coldest air so far this winter is coming to our town in a couple of days.  I've been putting off this project for a year, and figure now is as good of a time as any to check this one off my to-do list.

I had not looked online to see how others made these blockers.  I was simply in a home improvement store last year, saw the double sided Door Draft Blockers and didn't want to pay the $10+ for one set, but decided I could make a bean bag type of draft blocker myself.  As I walked through the isles of the store, being the cold time of the year, I found in the middle of the isle a display of pipe insulators, 4 for under $5.00.  .......Light Bulb!  (and today, I see online someone already had that Light Bulb come on.)

Here's the way I put mine together:

 

Ideas:  Make these to match your carpet/flooring.  You might not want to have a contrasting color.

 Keep your cost down and use fabric you already have on hand.

 i.e.  old clothes, blue jeans, old curtains, table cloth and best of all old blankets.

Knits and fleece work best because you don't have to worry about finishing edges.

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Wordless Wednesday #40~Peacock Got the Blues

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@

Mesker Park Zoo & Botanical Gardens

Evansville, IN 

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In-the-Hoop Zipper Bags

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Sewing Machine Gifts 2012- A Series

As pointed out in the previous post, I spent a lot of time on the Sewing Forum site downloading FREE embroidery files. 

For my 2 High School Grand Daughters I made them  a few little bags with monogrammed initial/name.

The larger is a cosmetic bag size was made in the hoop (ITH) and can be found at the Sewing Forum titled Quilted ITH zipped bag.  I skipped the quilting step and added a ribbon handle.

The black and pink is coin purse size which is quilted.    

Actually it's a smaller version of the cosmetic bag, and you can find it free @ Five Star Fonts Embroidery titled Zip Case in the Hoop.  I just up-sized this file to make the cosmetic bag.

The ribbon hoops are made long enough to be able to carry on the wrist if need.

The purchased clip came from HOLLY HOBBY.

I made several tissue cases with embroidered names using the letters on my machine rather than embroidery.  The black fabric had so many colors going on, it didn't matter the color of the thread I used, the name just didn't show up among the busy design.  oh-well.  I've had this simple pattern for years, and after research couldn't find one exactly like mine which is super simple.  

  Note: I'm teaching a 3rd grader how to sew and this was the first project for her.  I hope to show how I taught her to make it on a later post.

Update: Please find tutorial and cutting measure for tissue case HERE.

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