My Sewing Space

Thanks for the compliments on the make-up bag.  I did draft the pattern myself, just using the measurements from the original bag and adjusting them for the requested change.  I find that I really kind of like the process of trying to copy something as closely as possible. Awhile ago I saw someone (on a blog) wrap a tea towel and dish cloth around a wooden spoon and tie it up with a ribbon.  Viola!  A great gift.  I liked this idea and decided to use it this Christmas.  Unfortunately, I can't find the blog where I saw it.  And I've really searched because I can't get mine to look very good tied around the spoon. Anyway, these will be gifts for school and Sunday school teachers, babysitters, etc. Dish cloth pattern: Garter Stitch Lace Facecloth Dish cloth pattern: Lacy Picot Swirl Cloth Dish cloth pattern: Lion Brand Lion Cotton Dish Cloth Dish cloth pattern: Diagonal Knit Dish Cloth Dish cloth pattern: Lace Zig Zag Dishcloth Pat...

Someone (anonymous) asked where I got the embroidery designs for the tea towels .  I meant to include this info with the initial post, but forgot.  The Christmas ornaments are from a purchased piece of clipart.  The Christmas candle is available here as a coloring page.  The other two designs are from needlecrafter.com .  There are a lot of other designs on this site that I would like to do someday.  For all of the designs, I printed off the design and then traced the back side of it with an iron transfer pencil (against the window to be able to see it better).  Then I ironed it on the towels.  I found this worked well because it reversed the design, making it the right direction on the towel and I also could easily see the placement of the design. The 500th birthday party for John Calvin was a fun evening.  The hat was a hit.  Here it is in action (with "Calvin's" permission): In my previous post , I mentioned an art show t...

Today I finished the four tea towels that I've been working on for shop owner M.  I really do like doing all the hand stitching, but I found each one took longer than I estimated it would. Two Christmas-themed: Two for any season: Now I'm working on some Christmas stockings, as requested by shop owner S. M and S are having an open house event next Friday evening - open late, hot cider, $10 off of a $50 purchase, prize draws, etc.  So, my goal is to have the stockings done before then.

Fifteen terry cloth bags for bar soap or soap slivers, ready for the shelves.... For the first time, I used my 1/2" bias tape maker for the casings.  I was pretty impressed with how well it worked.  I love a good sewing tool. I think it will take me as long to clean up all the lint, fuzz and snippets from this project as it did to make them all.  Terry cloth is a messy fabric. Work in progress: Back to work...

 It's been awhile since I've posted anything.  Life has been busy here.  But, now I have something to show you, so I'm back. When I dropped off the wine bags , the shopkeeper told me that the woman who owned the shop next door was interested in having me sew some things for her to sell.  The things she wanted aren't really things I've done before, but I was interested, so I've found myself in a bit of a product development project. One of the things she wanted was tea towels.  She had a favorite type that she carried, but can't get them anymore and hasn't found a good replacement.  I did a little research about tea towels and found out that linen is the fabric of choice for good tea towels.  I didn't know this - I assumed it would be cotton.  I guess fine china and crystal should only be dried with a linen tea towel.  Perhaps the absence of fine china and crystal in my life (I'm really at more of a Tupperware kind...